THE MEANING OF DISSOLUTION 



it goes, for we can scarcely be satisfied with any 

 explanation that does not meet all the facts. 

 Furthermore, we cannot accept as final any ex- 

 planation which proceeds on the assumption that 

 time is what, for our daily purposes, we regard it. 

 Few will now dispute the proposition that time is 

 no more than the symbol by which we express our 

 consciousness of change without and within us. 

 Now evolution is simply an assertion of universal 

 and ordered change, so that time is thus merely 

 an expression or symbol of our consciousness of 

 evolution, and cannot be included in any ultimate 

 explanation of the fact of evolution. Let me 

 make a second attempt to express myself. The 

 foregoing theory states that evolution, change, life, 

 activity to live is to change, says Newman had 

 a beginning and therefore a Beginner, and will 

 have an end. But if time be an expression of our 

 consciousness of change or activity, we cannot 

 introduce this (derived) temporal concept into our 

 explanation of the cause of that which it symbol- 

 izes. Judged by any philosophical canon, there- 

 fore, the argument for a beginning of the cosmic 

 activity must be regarded as circular and vain. 

 We might, indeed, apply to it, as to any other 

 circular argument, that blessed word "self-exist- 

 ent," with which Professor Haeckel explains the 

 prime fact of Nature's being. 



Secondly, we may leave the philosophic and 

 consider the scientific question. Ere we infer 

 from the law of the dissipation of energy that the 

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