HOW TIME PASSES INTO ETERNITY. 263 



Lttain to the ideal of Eternity is that we fail equally 



attain to the cognate ideals of Being and Adapt- 

 Ltion. The question thereby resolves itself into the 

 >ld difficulty (ch. v. § 5) of why the Real cannot 

 Realize the perfection of the Ideals of our reason. 

 lUt if it could, is it not evident that there would 

 )e an end of Time, as of Change and of Evil, and 

 ^ould not Time pass into Eternity ? 



Regarding Eternity, therefore, as the Ideal, and 



wt as the fieo-cttion of Time, as that into which Time 



tends to pass in the process of Evolution, as that 



Into which it will pass at the end of that process, 



[t is possible to resolve the difficulty of the depen- 



ience of the world-process on the reality of Time. 



f Time is the corruption of Eternity, if it is but 



:he imperfect shadow cast by Eternity c^n the pre- 



jcient soul of man, then what is true of Time holds 



if Eternity sensic eminentiori, and in becoming a 



irocess in Eternity the world-process does not have 



[its meaning annihilated. On the contrary, it for 



[the first time attains to its full plenitude of import. 



We may conclude therefore, for the present, that 

 [the solution of the problem of Time lies in its 

 [re-attainment of Eternity. 



\ 1 2. The next subject which awaits discussion 

 [in our relations to our environment is that of man's 

 [relation to the material world. But before entering 

 into a discussion of the relations and functions of 

 Matter and Spirit, it will be necessary to allude as 

 briefly as may be to the question of Idealism and 

 the external world. 



Idealism is popularly supposed to consist in a 

 denial of the existence of an external world. But 

 this accusation is really a corollary from the funda- 

 mental fact of Idealism, which idealists have been 



