THE LIMITS OF EVOLUTION 4 1 



sciousness, which is the essential being and true 

 person of the mind ; much less can it originate this. 

 On the contrary, we have seen it is in this a priori 

 consciousness that the law of evolution has its source 

 and its warrant. Issuing from the noumenal being 

 of mind, evolution has its field only in the world of 

 the mind's experiences, — "inner" and "outer," 

 physical and psychic ; or, to speak summarily, only 

 in the world of phenomena. But there, it is indeed 

 universal and strictly necessary. 



In the light of the foregoing analysis, a thorough 

 philosophy would now move securely forward to the 

 conclusion that the Continuous Copula required in 

 evolution, the secret Active Nexus without which it 

 would be inconceivable, is at nearest inference tJte 

 spiritual nattwe or organic personality of man himself} 

 Whether there is not also involved a profounder, an 

 absolute Impersonation of that nature, to be called 

 God, is a further and distinct question, legitimate no 

 doubt, but not to be dealt with till the immediate 



^ The reader will notice that all the argumentation which follows 

 really proceeds upon the tacit iuijilication that this intelligent nature is 

 not limited to man, but is, in whatever degree of phenomenal mani- 

 festation, common to -all living beings. It is stated in terms of human 

 nature, first, because, as brought out below, it is the human being who 

 raises the question here argued, and argues it ; and, secondly, be- 

 cause in man alone do we come by the path of experience upon its 

 rounded Type. 



