NATURE'S EVOLUTION. 21 



with his character. It should be added that 

 Darwin has something more affirmative than 

 the poet, for new and indeed higher types 

 are always being evolved out of the vanishing 

 old ones. The Origin of Species was pub- 

 lished ten years later (1859) than the dated 

 dedication of In Memoriam; so the Darwinian 

 idea was in the air, and indeed in the social 

 circumstances of the time. 



Philosophy, Science, and Poetry had, there- 

 fore, uttered the deepest spiritual trend of 

 the century, each in its own manner and in 

 its own domain. Hegel's Logic, Darwin's 

 Origin of Species, and Goethe's Faust remain 

 three supreme masterpieces of human genius, 

 belonging to one period and expressing one 

 content ultimately ; three very different voices 

 we may well deem them, but all proclaiming 

 the pivotal message of their time. And that 

 is the reason why they are the masterpieces 

 of the century, epoch-making we say, but 

 really epoch-voicing. They tell the character 

 and designate the place of their epoch in the 

 unfolding of man toward his goal. What we 

 have called the Pampsychosis they utter in 

 its latest temporal manifestation. The uni- 

 versal Spirit speaks through all of them its 

 most recent evangel, which is that of Evolu- 

 tion. 



But the question rises : Is this the last word 



