50 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS n 



true of each part, is true of the whole. Natural 

 knowledge tends more and more to the conclusion 

 that " all the choir of heaven and furniture of the 

 earth " are the transitory forms of parcels of cosmic 

 substance wending along the road of evolution, 

 from nebulous potentiality, through endless 

 growths of sun and planet and satellite ; through 

 all varieties of matter ; through infinite diversities 

 of life and thought ; possibly, through modes of 

 being of which we neither have a conception, nor 

 are competent to form any, back to the indefin 

 able latency from which they arose. Thus the 

 most obvious attribute of the cosmos is its imper- 

 manence. It assumes the aspect not so much of 

 a permanent entity as of a changeful process, in 

 which naught endures save the flow of energy and 

 the rational order which pervades it. 



We have climbed our bean-stalk and have 

 reached a wonderland in which the common and 

 the familiar become things new and strange. In 

 the exploration of the cosmic process thus 

 typified, the highest intelligence of man finds 

 inexhaustible employment ; giants are subdued to 

 our service ; and the spiritual affections of the 

 contemplative philosopher are engaged by beauties 

 worthy of eternal constancy. 



But there is another -aspect of the cosmic process, 

 so perfect as a mechanism, so beautiful as a work 

 of art. Where the cosmopoietic energy works 



