fulfilment of a design, but rather the annihilation of a purpose. If, then, all things are to become spiritual, this cannot imply that they will some day sink to be material again. Phenomena are avowedly the means and not the end. Self-conscious spirit alone is the end; nor can we conceive of any higher expression of a really persistent force than that which makes it a consciousness, wherein abide past, present, and future, as known, loved, and acted upon. The final stage of progress, so far as we can discern it, must be a society of immortal beings, physically, morally, and intellectually perfect, united in the immanent Cause of their existence and action, who is revealed to them as such by the changes they have undergone.

PYTHIAS. Tancred's lady has apparently well summed it up: "We had fins; we may have wings." Shall I shock you-or are you past shocking if I say that the prospect does not much charm me? I agree with Voltaire, "On aime la vie, mais le néant ne laisse pas d'avoir du bon."

DAMON. My dear old friend, just consider that our likings have nothing to do with the matter. "The nature of things will not be changed by your or my fond wishes." "Things are what they are, and their consequences will be what they will be. Why, then, should we desire to be deceived?"

PYTHIAS. That is exactly what I do not desire, nor you either, of course. But I wonder whether

THE DESTINY OF MATTER.

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CHAP. V.] we make sufficient allowance for the difference of our intellectual constitution? Let me hear you out, however, if you will be so kind. There are still two points which you must touch upon before your theory will be properly rounded off-the destiny of matter and the bearing of the problem of evil on the whole doctrine of progress.

But

DAMON. Physical science indicates that matter proceeds from the invisible and returns thither, developing in the intermediate cycles an larger and higher capacity for the expression of vital energies. Thus it is imperceptibly condensed from elements to compounds; from hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, to the living organisms in which spirit manifests itself; and this unstable synthesis dissolves in the partial analysis of vital action and in the total analysis of death. there are grounds for believing that death controls only the visible, and that there are invisible material energies by which the spirit can act after death. These energies make up the σῶμα πνευμα Tikóv, to use St. Paul's phrase, the spiritual body, which may be subject to endless transformations, raising it higher and higher until the spirit attains the vastest powers of acting in and through space. There is no reason why these powers should be suspended, annihilated, or made unnecessary to the soul's perfection; on the contrary, they should, according to the analogy of nature, persist. A soul now embodies itself in flesh and blood. Here

after it may be the ruling principle of a star. If matter be the outside of spirit, then spiritual beings may be, must be, the centres of cosmic energy, and the material universe may be as lasting as the soul itself. Nay, more, it is reasonable to suppose that the creative or artistic instinct demands this for its contentment, and that immortal knowledge will be the mainspring of ever fresh realisation by the spirit in the world of sense. Yes, there is a true word in Lord Beaconsfield's joke. The wings of immortality are contemplation and action. The soul creates a world around it and embodies a world in the concrete. What reason is there why this should come to an end with death, if death be only the releasing of pent-up energies and not the dissolution of them all?

Then as to evil. It is commonly held that progress must change evil to good, and that it is only relative, only the negation of higher good as yet unattained. But, as I have urged, we must admit freewill upon the supreme testimony of consciousness. I say, therefore, that if a man submits to the law of moral development, which he may do by choosing and acting aright, he will finally be delivered from all evil. But if he rebels and will not submit to the elevating, the redeeming influences, he thereby falls under those which degrade, stupefy, and materialise. And as he would cease to be man had he no free-will-actu vel potentiaand moral good must imply moral choice, it seems

CHAP. V.]

EVIL AND PROGRESS.

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inevitable that he should remain the slave of the lower life as long as he will not choose to break away from it. And, death being a change of state, not of moral condition, what warrant have we for affirming that the process of degradation will not continue indefinitely? And science not admitting annihilation-nothing perishes-does not this imply an eternal abiding in that from which the soul was meant to pass onward and upward? By what name, then, shall we call the vision of perfection not realised, nor now to be realised, the consciousness of a life with infinite aspirations unfulfilled, the knowledge of aims endlessly desirable, yet not loved, the thought of action that might have been wide and high as the universe, now expended fruitlessly and thwarted by an evil will? You know the name, which so lightly comes to men's lips, given by all religions to this sphere of darkness. I do not see that science can erase it from the portal. If the soul at last identifies itself with the environment and this with itself, an evil soul must have around it an environment of horror. I admit that all this depends upon the existence of free-will and the reality of sin, concerning which we must interrogate, not the men of physical science, but those to whom good and evil have appeared the supreme realities of life and the struggle between them the supreme struggle for existence. It was a fine saying of Joubert's and a true: "One should be fearful of being wrong in poetry when one

thinks differently from the poets, and in religion when one thinks differently from the saints."

PYTHIAS. There comes my doctor-no saint, but a staunch materialist. He is just in time; for if you go on I shall perhaps have to say of you as Duclos said of some of his friends-in a different connection, indeed-"Ces gens-là finiront par me faire aller à la messe."

DAMON. Would that be a great misfortune? If my own testimony is worth anything, take it in the old lines

Plurima quæsivi: per singula quæque cucurri:

Nec quidquam inveni melius quam credere Christo.

FINIS.