ioo The Evolution Hypothesis. 



some point in time have been less or greater than at 

 present. The cosmos, as we see it, may be one throb 

 in the pulsations of a mighty rhythmic movement 

 through which the absolute energy has been revealing 

 itself in a constantly changing totality of manifesta- 

 tions. That the amount remains constant, and has 

 for ever remained constant, is a supposition not only 

 unwarranted, but out of harmony with the evolution 

 doctrine itself. We should, as disciples of Mr. Spencer, 

 be led rather to conceive of the unknowable actuality 

 as revealing itself in modes ceaselessly changing, both 

 in amount and in variety. Out of the depths of the 

 absolute cause all manifested force wells up. The 

 fountain out of which it springs is infinite. As the 

 myriad moving atoms, whirling in systems of inex- 

 plicable complexity, rise into view, we can think 

 of them as in continual play of perpetually changing 

 shapes, the totality rising and falling with ceaseless 

 rhythmic mutations, in endless diversity of mode and 

 in continually varying amount. We can imagine also 

 that, in the great cosmic movement, ever moulding it 

 anew, are forms of beauty and forthgoings of power 

 which intelligence can never reach through sense. 

 A vision of this kind is in truer harmony with the 

 whole course of change than Mr. Spencer's hypothesis 

 of a hard line on the one side of which thought has 

 an " indefinite consciousness " of the absolute energy, 

 &nd on the other, sees an unalterable sum of mani- 

 fested power. If we take the persistent force to be 



