216 THE WOELD-ENEEGY 



we represent to ourselves a " Great Artificer" stand- 

 ing above, and thus apart from his work. He himself 

 is the efficient cause of the world. That upon which 

 He works is the material cause. 



In this (usual) view, then, these two phases of cause, 

 which we have already seen to be inseparable, are held 

 asunder, thus reducing Creator and creation alike to mere 

 abstractions. And not only so, but in this view creation 

 is figured as taking place in time. In which case the 

 Creator is at times active, and again, at other times, 

 inactive. He is then not only separate from the world 

 of his own creation, for the substance of which he must 

 draw upon a pre-existent, and hence unaccounted for 

 "matter," but he is also not continuously the same with 

 himself, though the perfect must unquestionably be 

 regarded as "yesterday, to-day and forever the same." 



Thus, it appears that the effort to exalt the Creator 

 by contrasting him with, as separate from, his creation, 

 proves really to involve the very opposite result from 

 that which was intended. For it makes him appear as 

 dependent upon something lying quite beyond himself 

 as the material without which he must be powerless to 

 unfold a world in space. 



There remains the conception of what we may call 

 absolute creation. It is the conception that the world 

 has been created from nothing. And this, though often 

 looked upon as self-refuting, really contains in germ, 

 the one really adequate view. For if the world was, 

 or rather is created from nothing, then in reality the 

 Creator brings the world into being by and through and 

 from his own absolute perfection. That is, he requires 

 nothing beyond himself as infinite creative energy to 



