140 Life and Matter [chap. vm. 



can hardly be said to have any incarnate 

 existence. These exist only as ideas. 



Parliament exists fundamentally as an idea, 

 and it can be called into existence or 

 re-incarnated again. Whether it is the same 

 Parliament or not after a general election is 

 a question that may be differently answered. 

 It is not identical, it may have different 

 characteristics, but there is certainly a sort 

 of continuity ; it is still a British Parliament, 

 for instance, it has not changed its character 

 to that of the French Assembly or the 

 American Congress. It is a permanent 

 entity even when disembodied ; it has a 

 past and it has a future ; it has a funda- 

 mentally continuous existence though there 

 are breaks or dislocations in its conspicuous 

 activity, and though each incarnation has 

 a separate identity or personality of its own. 

 It is larger and more comprehensive than 

 any individual representation of it ; it may 

 be said to have a " subliminal self," of 

 which any septennial period sees but a 

 meagre epitome. 



