298 MAN AND THE WORLD. 



invisible, impalpable and imponderable substances 

 in the '' unseen universe," by which it explains the 

 visible. The ignorance of Lucretius permitted him 

 to give to his Atomism a far greater formal perfec- 

 tion, than the fuller knowledge of modern physicists 

 admits of, and every far-sighted materialist must 

 lament that science should have been driven to give 

 metaphysicians such openings for crushing ^u qicoqties 

 as it has by asserting the existence of supra-sensible 

 substances like the ether and of timeless forces like 

 gravitation {cp. ch. ill. § 9). For with what face after 

 this can science protest against the admission of 

 supra-sensible world of eternal Being, as involved In 

 the co77tplete explanation of the physical universe, 

 when precisely similar assumptions have already 

 been used by science for the purposes of a partial 

 explanation ? Metaphysicians, on the other hand, 

 will regard these facts as indications that the de- 

 velopment of Matter and Spirit proceeds along con- 

 verging lines, and that by the time the supra-sensible 

 is reached a single reality will be seen to embrace 

 the manifestations of both. 



§ 30. And (2) the spirltualizatlon of Matter is 

 displayed also in its relations to spiritual beings. 

 As in the course of Evolution these become more 

 harmonized with the Divine Will, Matter, the 

 expression of that Will, becomes more and more 

 harmonized with the desires of spiritual beings. 

 The chains that bound us are gradually relaxed, 

 the restrictions that fettered us are one by one 

 removed, as intelligent insight grows strong enough 

 to take the place of physical compulsion. We obtain 

 command of Nature by knowledge of her laws, and 

 it is by our obedience to the laws of the material 

 that we win our way to spiritual freedom. Hence 



