xn THE HOLISTIC UNIVERSE 337 



sunset glow in the distant clouds, some mixture of light and 

 shade on the mountains, may suddenly throw an unearthly 

 spell over the spirit, lead it forth from the deep chambers, 

 and set it panting and wondering with inexpressible emo- 

 tions. For the overwrought mind there is no peace like 

 Nature's, for the wounded spirit there is no healing like hers. 

 There are indeed times when human companionship becomes 

 unbearable, and we fly to Nature for that silent sympathy 

 and communion which she alone can give. Some of the 

 deepest emotional experiences of my life have come to 

 me on the many nights I have spent under the open 

 African sky; and I am sure my case has not been singular 

 in this respect. The intimate rapport with Nature is 

 one of the most precious things in life. Nature is 

 indeed very close to us; sometimes perhaps closer than 

 hands and feet, of which in truth she is but the extension. 

 The emotional appeal of Nature is tremendous, some- 

 times almost more than one can bear. But to explain 

 it we need not make the unwarrantable assumption of 

 a universal animism or animatism, and invest inanimate 

 things with souls kindred to our own. Evolution, with the 

 genetic relationships and fundamental kinship it implies, 

 accounts for all this intimate emotional appeal. The idea 

 of the universe as a spiritual Society of Souls is a poetical 

 idealised picture, and not in accord with the sober realistic, 

 scientific view of the facts. This is a universe of whole- 

 making, not merely of soul-making, which is only its climax 

 phase. The universe is not a pure transparency of Reason 

 or Spirit. It contains unreason and contradiction, it con- 

 tains error and evil, sin and suffering. There are grades 

 and gaps, there are clashes and disharmonies between the 

 grades. It is not the embodiment of some simple homo- 

 geneous human Ideal. It is profoundly complex and replete 

 with unsearchable diversities and variety. It is the ex- 

 pression of a creative process which is for ever revealing 

 new riches and supplying new unpredictable surprises. 

 But the creative process is not, on that account, issuing 

 in chaos and hopeless irreconcilable conflict. It is for 



