Civilisation : Its Cause and Cure 



relation to each other Is conceived of as one of 

 rivalry and Competition, we of course think of 

 the objects of Nature as being chiefly engaged 

 in a Struggle for Existence with each other ; but 

 when we become aware of all our senses and feelings, 

 and of ourselves as individuals, as having relation 

 to the Absolute and universal, proceeding from 

 it, as the branches and twigs of a tree from the 

 trunk — then we shall become aware of a Divine 

 or absolute science in Nature ; we shall at last 

 understand that all objects have a permanent 

 and indissoluble relation to each other, and 

 shall see their true meaning — though not till 

 then. 



Is it possible then that Science, having hitherto 

 — and we shall see in time that this process has 

 been really most valuable and important — gone 

 outwards from the centre towards the very fringe 

 of Humanity — emptying facts as far as possible 

 as it went of all feeling, and reducing itself at 

 last to the most shadowy generalisations on the 

 very verge of sense and nonsense — is it possible, 

 I say, that it will now return, and first filling up 

 facts with feeling as far as practicable (that is, 

 by direct and the most living contact with Nature 

 in every form, learning to enter into direct per- 

 sonal sense-relationship with every phenomenon 

 and phase), will so gradually ascend to the great 

 central fact and feeling, and then at last and for 

 the first time become fully conscious of a vast 

 organisation — absolutely perfect and intimately knit 

 from its centre to its utmost circumference — 



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