THE LIMITS OF EVOLUTION 3 1 



though the being be not so. It will be an impor- 

 tant step, however, if we can show now what the 

 nature of the yet undetermined Copula is. More- 

 over, it will at once appear in what being, known 

 to us, the proximate seat of that nature is — the 

 seat first at hand, relatively to the connexion be- 

 tween the parts and species of Nature, and to the 

 evolutional character which that connexion undeni- 

 ably wears. 



It is a common characteristic of most philosophies 

 that they proceed somewhat precipitately with the 

 act of noumenal or metaphysical inference, and, 

 passing human nature forgetfully by, leap at once 

 to the being of what they call the Absolute Reality, 

 and to the determination of the nature belonging 

 to that. This is like settling the nature and reality 

 of the landscape while ignoring the nature and ex- 

 istence of the eye that sees it and in truth gives 

 it being, or helps to give it being. Not the Abso- 

 lute Being, not the Absolute Mind, or God, which 

 the reality of evolution may finally presuppose, but 

 rather mind as a nature or kind, and, proximately, 

 mind in man, as the immediate and direct expres- 

 sion of the Copula whose nature we seek to know, 

 must be the first and unavoidable Reality reached 

 by metaphysical cognition. 



That this is the accurate truth will become appar- 

 ent by analysing the conception of evolution and 



