MATTER AS THE MARK OF EVIL. 



sistency at all times and under all conditions of the 

 theory which makes Matter the principle of Evil ; 

 for it would be contrary to all belief in the ration- 

 ality of Evolution to suppose that even error, when 

 persistent, is ever gratuitous. Accordingly we find 

 that though Matter, being nothing in itself, cannot 

 be the principle of Evil, and is not in itself evil, it 

 is yet characteristic of an essentially imperfect order 

 of things : it is, as it were, the outward indication 

 and visible reflexion of Evil. For Evil is, like all 

 things, ultimately psychical, and what is evil about 

 Matter is the condition of the spirits which require 

 the restraint of Matter. If, therefore, as Plato says, 

 the body is the grave of the soul, and Matter is the 

 prison of the Spirit, it must yet be admitted that 

 it is not the existence of prisons which is to be 

 deplored, but of those whom it is necessary to 

 imprison. 



And Matter is connected with Evil in its double 

 aspect, both as the engine of progress and the 

 mechanism of the divine education of spirits, and 

 also as the check upon consciousness. For if evil, 

 i.e., inharmonious spirits were permitted the full 

 realization of their conscious powers, they would 

 be able to thwart and to delay, if not to prevent, 

 the attainment of the divine purpose of the world- 

 process. But if they are permitted intelligence only 

 when they are ready to recognize the cosmic order 

 and in p7^oportion as they are ready to do so, the 

 aptness of the contrivance of Matter becomes mani- 

 fest. The lower existences, i.e., the less harmonized, 

 have their consciousness limited and repressed by 

 material organization, in order that their power for 

 evil may be practically neutralized, and that in the 

 impotence of their stupidity they may have little 



