380 ESSAYS IN PHILOSOPHY 



change ; and so the past, though no part of it can 

 be recalled, is perpetually being re-created and trans- 

 formed, now for the worse, now for the better, as its 

 whole goes on unfolding. But the whole, it is within 

 the compass of our freedom to bring into fuller and 

 fuller harmony with our active vision of our Ideal, 

 in which at source the freedom consists. 



This is the life of the responsible universe, the 

 World of Souls : its freedom is only existent in terms 

 of God, who, despite the Inexorable Finger, hears in 

 eternity the sigh of the penitent, and accords to him 

 eternally an indwelling fountain of salvation, from 

 "before the foundation of the world." Thus does He 

 " still the cry of the afflicted " ; thus age by age, to 

 ages everlasting, "wipe away all tears," and grant to 

 each sinning and sorrowing spirit the bliss of repent- 

 ance consciously free, a redemption that arises out of 

 the soul itself, the merit of virtue that is its own, and 

 a peace that is indeed within. 



