THE DEFENCE 223 



mutation of energy" in physics, or of " natural selection" 

 or " evolution " in biology, is only ^_hy^othesis. Even 

 as an hypothesis, it is only in process of being proved : 

 and proof is never complete ; for knowledge is never one 

 rounded whole, one all-comprehensive equipoised system 

 in which every element sustains and is sustained by every 

 other element. From this point of view the claims of the 

 Idealism which has been called "absolute" are just as 

 modest as those of any other tentative theory by which 

 man seeks to understand himself, and make of his world 

 a home in which his intelligence may find some order and 

 peace. There is a sense in which Idealism, like any other 

 theory of human life, must await developments in morals 

 and politics, and is altogether unable to anticipate practice. 

 Men and States can be taught the right way, not by wide 

 theories, but little by little, through feeling the stings of 

 their practical errors. The idealist runs no risk of losing 

 his head with intellectual pride. His task is too great and 

 his performance too small. His " colligating conception" 

 is so rich and his use of it as yet so poor and meagre. 



But that principle itself he need not forego for any such 

 criticisms as have been advanced against it. It has already 

 shown something of that power which a regulative con- 

 ception always manifests in systematic thinking, re-inter- 

 preting and transvaluating the phenomena to which it is 

 applied. At the very worst Idealism, by means of its 

 hypothesis of " spirit," has rendered obsolete the abstract 

 methods which set the elements of individual and social 

 welfare in antagonism to each other. It has shown that 

 neither in theology, nor in ethics, nor in logic, nor in 

 politics can investigation proceed on the old lines, or 

 alternate between the old antitheses. What the ultimate 



