264 ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST 



est, since man's ideals are in themselves unlimited, 

 non-fmite; and the values involved, to our present 

 type of mind, appear ultimate. This third aspect of 

 God is again historically the offspring of the second, 

 and through the second of the first. 



Matter, life, mind — this is the simplest classifica- 

 tion of phenomena. By means of processes analo- 

 gous to obtaining a resultant by the parallelogram of 

 forces, we can obtain a resultant of material opera- 

 tions in general, vital operations in general, and 

 mental operations in general, numerous and varied 

 in direction though they be. Life is the link between 

 the other two. Living matter is so definitely one 

 with non-living matter, not at all obviously one with 

 mind; yet the direction of living matter is obviously 

 similar to that of mind, not at all obviously one 

 with that of non-living matter. 



***** S|! * 



It is a simple fact that the conception which man 

 has of the universe and its relation to himself exer- 

 cises important effects upon his life. A name there- 

 fore is needed for this anthropological phenomenon. 

 God is the usual name applied, and we shall retain 

 it in default of another, premissing that the word, 

 like many similar general terms — 'love," or "life," or 

 "beauty," say — can be defined and applied in many 

 ways, and that we apply it here in a particular and 

 perhaps somewhat novel sense. 



God in this sense is the universe, not as such, but 

 so far as grasped as a whole by a mind, embodied in 



