18 The Bible of Nature 



and water and salts. Nothing is lost, but nothing 

 is permanent. All things flow. As Huxley said: 

 ''Natural knowledge tends more and more to the 

 conclusion that *all the choir of heaven and furni- 

 ture of the earth' are the transitory forms of par- 

 cels of cosmic substance wending along the road 

 of evolution, from nebulous potentiality, through 

 endless growths of sun and planet and satellite; 

 through all varieties of matter; through infinite 

 diversities of life and thought; possibly, through 

 modes of being of which we neither have a con- 

 ception, nor are competent to form any, back to the 

 undefinable latency from which they arose. Thus 

 the most obvious attribute of the cosmos is its im- 

 permanence. It assumes the aspect not so much 

 of a permanent entity as of a changeful process, 

 in which nought endures save the flow of energy, 

 and the rational order which pervades it." 



It may be permissible to quote, from Dr. 

 J. Theodor Merz, Riickert's beautiful poem, 

 " Chidher," as a fine expression of the cyclic con- 

 ception of existence: 



"Chidher, the ever youthful, spake; 

 I passed a city on my way, 

 A man in a garden fruit did break, 

 I asked how long the town here lay ? 

 He spoke, and broke on as before, 

 'The town stands ever on this shore. 

 And will thus stand forevermore.' 



