98 Presidential Address 



subjectivity of time. That theory in- 

 volves the reality of time, and it is in this 

 sense that Prof. Bergson uses the great 

 phrase " Creative Evolution.'* 



I see the whole of material existence as 

 a steady passage from past to future, only 

 the single instant which we call the pre- 

 sent being actual. The past is not non- 

 existent however, it is stored in our 

 memories, there is a record of it in matter, 

 and the present is based upon it; the 

 future is the outcome of the present, and 

 is the product of evolution. 



Existence is like the output from a 

 loom. The pattern, the design for the 

 weaving, is in some sort "there" already; 

 but whereas our looms are mere machines, 

 once the guiding cards have been fed 

 into them, the Loom of Time is compli- 

 cated by a multitude of free agents who 

 can modify the web, making the product 

 more beautiful or more ugly according as 

 they are in harmony or disharmony with 

 the general scheme. I venture to main- 

 tain that manifest imperfections are thus 

 accounted for, and that freedom could be 



