THE FORMULA AND THE IDEAL OF ''HEAVEN." 239 



subsequently have to regard from a different point 

 of view (ch. ix. § 2 3), more than justify the assertion 

 that our individuaHty is as yet very ill-defined, and 

 that consequently personality is for us an Ideal, 

 which we have not yet fully realized. 



And if we had realized it, what would it be ? 

 What but the life of perfected individuals in a per- 

 fect society ? 



And what, again, is this but the ideal of the Com- 

 munion of Saints, of the Christian conception of 

 Heaven ? 



If, then, the process of Evolution may be defined 

 as the progressive development of the individual 

 in combination with other individuals, in which the 

 individual passes from the atom to the moral person, 

 does not the completion of the process promise us 

 the attainment of our boldest desires ? 



§ 20. This formula for the world-process cannot 

 at least be accused of lacking in significance or 

 fulness of import. And perhaps the reason is that 

 it deals throughout, not with abstractions, but with 

 realities ; it makes use of abstractions, but con- 

 tinually refers them to the realities which they 

 symbolize. For while all the terms of the other 

 definitions of Evolution (§§ 2, 3), "heterogeneity," 

 " motion," " matter," '' consciousness," etc., are ab- 

 stractions which stand for qualities of reality, which 

 could never exist by themselves, terms like " indi- 

 vidual," "person," and "society," designate realities. 

 Atoms (?) crystals, animals, and men, the successive 

 embodiments of the process towards individuality, 

 are all of them real, and as such possess an infinity 

 of attributes. Hence, while the other formulations 

 of the world-process can give us only partial aspects 

 of reality (§ 2), we here seem to have grasped the 



