OHAPTEE XXL 



CREATOR AND CREATION. 



IT turns out, then, that the World-Energy is a self- 

 active, self-sufficing, self-differentiating Unit, which 

 is at once cause and effect. It is the Universe or Cosmos 

 itself, now seen to be an infinitely vital totality. It is 

 the concrete identity of the world and its Creator. That 

 is, Creator and creation are the complementary aspects 

 of the self -existent, self -unfolding World-Energy, in its 

 changeless perfection. 



Let us now inquire, briefly, how this conception com- 

 ports with accepted views of the creation of the world. 



It is usually objected to any form of the monistic 

 view that the Creator must necessarily be superior to 

 creation. The objection is based upon the assumption 

 that the created world is the realm of the finite and 

 imperfect, while the Creator must necessarily be regarded 

 as infinite and perfect in substance, Plato's view. 



To this it may be, and has been, answered that if we 

 hold the finite and the infinite asunder we represent to 

 ourselves an infinite which is contrasted with the finite, 

 and which thus stands in opposition to the finite. But 

 in such case the infinite is itself limited by the finite; 

 whence it proves in reality to be itself finite. 



So, also, when we contrast the Creator, as independent 

 and perfect, with creation, as the dependent and imperfect, 



215 



