1 8 THE WORLD MACHINE 



things will remain as obscure as now. So far as we can per- 

 ceive, the evolution of worlds, of life and of societies, of art 

 and the sciences, is a pervasive phenomenon of the universe, 

 ceaselessly interrupted, incessantly destroyed, ceaselessly begun 

 again, like the spider with its web, the beaver with its dam, 

 the bee with its comb, man with his works. A little while ago 

 it seemed as if we might perceive the obscure workings of a Con- 

 structive Impulse in the scheme of the world. Its limitations 

 eluding us, it seemed to promise much. But unless our present 

 conceptions are radically changed, the idea of unending growth 

 and expansion is an illusion, as if in entering a car of some 

 gigantic Ferris wheel, and slowly lifted from the earth, we should 

 believe that we should go on rising to the utmost reaches of 

 the sky. The complement of evolution is devolution, and in 

 the unfolding of worlds from a primal nebula, their slow decay 

 and final resolution into nebula again, we can at present per- 

 ceive but the ceaseless turning of a mighty wheel. 



From this primal nebula, this diffused chaos, this formless 

 fire-mist, this aimless welter of the atoms, to the green and 

 peaceful plains, where under a smiling sky the work of man 

 is done, is a far cry. Not stranger nor more weird has been 

 the intellectual journey of the race from its rude fancies, its 

 fantastic imaginings, to its present godlike outlook on the 

 universe. We may regard the one, like the other, as a process. 

 Examined a little nearer, in what does this process consist ? 



