CHAPTER XIX. 



The Purpose of the Universe. 



The Purpose of the Universe, viewed from the stand- 

 point of the New Materialism, necessarily differs from 

 the orthodox ideal. Hitherto, even from the highest 

 religious platform, Protestantism, the universe has been 

 pictured as the realisation of an ideal, begotten in the 

 mind of an omniscient and omnipotent Intelligence ; 

 a world-show designed in the all-knowing intellect, 

 and constructed in time, with phenomenal gearing, as 

 a temporary mundane diorama for purely omniscient 

 purposes and its divine Author's own honour and glory. 

 Every phenomenon thus had its foreordained sequence ; 

 every product its special purpose and use ; every 

 organism its appointed place, work, and duration ; and 

 every man his pre-destined damnation ; while all things, 

 even the diorama itself, had their inevitable dissolution 

 in the practical oblivion of eternity. In effect, the 

 beginning and end of all things was the Showman 

 himself. 



On the other hand, the beginning which materialists 



