158 The Three Beginnings. 



which all this is accomplished." 1 No wonder 

 then that Bruno should be lauded for his 

 " closer " approximation " to our present line of 

 thought." 8 



But this expression "our present line of 

 thought " is suggestive, and throws us back on 

 a previous passage in the Address, in which we 

 are told that " to construct the universe in idea 

 it was necessary to have some notion of its 

 constituent parts of what Lucretius subse- 

 quently called the ' First Beginnings.' " s 



The "First Beginnings!" What has "our 

 present line of thought " to say on these ? We 

 shall do well to question it 



And, to begin at the beginning, we shall do 

 well to note not merely the order, but the fact 

 here admitted. There was no matter when 

 an actual Beginning : a first start ; distinct, 

 definite. Antecedently, there was a prior time, 

 when this first start had not been made. The 

 process of Evolution, a " process of unravelling 

 and unfolding," is a process which then had not 

 begun. It is therefore not eternal It had a 

 beginning. But who began it ? 



1 " Materialism and its Opponents," p. 598. 

 "Belfast Address," p. 19. 

 . 2. 



