THE LIMITS OF EVOLUTION 3 



But in the hands of others the philosophy of evo- 

 lution becomes an affirmative idealism : the theory 

 of the Unknowable gives way to the theory of 

 Cosmic Theism, the Persistent Force to the Omni- 

 present Mind. God is made immanent in Nature — 

 as directly present throughout the immensity of the 

 universe as each person's mind is to its own body. 

 Every member in the vast whole, nay, every atom, 

 is represented ,as instinct with God ; yes, as being 

 God in some limitation or other, and in some victo- 

 rious expression or other, of his incessant energy. 

 As declared in the threadbare lines of Pope, — 



AH are but parts of one stupendous whole, 

 - Whose body Nature is, and God the soul. 



All things are accordingly but aspects in the self- 

 vision of the one and only eternal Consciousness, 

 whose ceaseless rending of his successive disguises, 

 that he may at length appear to himself in his 

 proper image, unconfined and unobscured, is the ex- 

 planatory cause of that ever changing, ever broaden- 

 ing, and ever deepening stream of existences which 

 we have come to name the Drama of Evolution : — 



They change and perish all, but He remains ; 

 A moment guess'd — then back behind the fold 

 Immerst of darkness round the Drama roll'd 



Which, for the pastime of eternity, 

 He dotli himself contrive, enact, behold. 



