80 THE SUM IMPRESSION 



wonderful things we see. But not perfection. The 

 eye is a wonderful thing. But an oculist would 

 point out defects in even the best. 



And if it be argued that there has not been suffi- 

 cient time yet to work out a plan, the reply is that 

 there has been infinite time. Time is infinite. If 

 the Activity were merely working out a plan, the 

 plan would have been completed ages ago. 



So the Organising Activity which we see must 

 be working at the back of things, keeping all the 

 separate individuals together in a connected whole, 

 not only preserves the strictest order among them, 

 but grants them freedom, stimulates emulation 

 among them, inspires them to reach upward and 

 to look into and provide for the future. Such an 

 Activity is no mere mechanical activity. It is a 

 purposive Activity. It is an essentially spiritual 

 Activity. Spirit is not the casual flash flaming up 

 from the working of blind physical and chemical 

 forces. Spirit dominates these blind forces. Spirit 

 is a true determining factor in the whole process. 

 Spirit is at the root and source and permeates the 

 whole. 



This Spiritual Activity is what in ordinary lan- 

 guage we speak of as "the Spirit of Nature," and 

 emanates from the Heart of Nature. 



When, therefore, our Artist sums up his im- 

 pressions of Nature as epitomised in the life of the 

 forest ; when he has been able to feel that he has, 

 as it were, got inside the skin of Nature, entered 

 into her Spirit and really understood her as the 

 artist-midge we have referred to would enter into 



