232 The Evolution of Transcendence [CH. 



Yet we know the temporal and spatial series the 

 causal series in which effect follows cause inevitably, 

 according to the law of limitation to be only a part in 

 a whole that is more absolutely real. We emphasise our 

 innate knowledge of this in the pragmatic distinction 

 partly false though it be we draw between the natural 

 and the spiritual. Though the emphasis of our life is 

 often wholly on the temporal series, for practical rea- 

 sons, we can and do see the eternal as well. We do, as 

 a matter of fact, see the end, in some degree, in virtue 

 of our transcendence, even though the future stages to 

 that end are wholly unknown to us. This, we have 

 already argued, must be true of God. 



Yet there is no question of a double consciousness in 

 us, even though in some degree, and at some time, we 

 see the whole as being-accomplished (note the idea of 

 completeness and finality that this present-past phrase 

 suggests). We do this through our transcendent con- 

 sciousness, yet all the while we know that things are 

 working out in Time in duration serially. 



One can, in fact, and does, accept without any sense 

 of incongruity these two irreconcileables of immanent 

 and transcendent knowledge in oneself. 



Let us admit the truth of this, and turn to the parallel 

 God-consciousness. 



One can understand that, God being perfectly Trans- 

 cendent, He sees everything as being-accomplished, al- 

 ready present as a Whole. The life-struggle, the pain, 

 the self-surrender, are as integral and necessary parts of 

 that Whole as is His own self -experience, for they are 

 implicitly demanded by His character as Love. The 

 temporal series, that is to say, is a necessary part of the 

 whole; just as the light -giving of the moon is an integral 

 part of what the moon represents to us. Yet we know 

 that the light is only there because the sun shines on 

 her; it is the reflecting power of real moon that makes 



