366 MAN AND GOD. 



^ovXrj^^ and constrained chaotic wills Into the scheme 

 of cosmic order. But this cosmic order of perfect 

 harmony Is as yet unattalned, and so the world con- 

 tains a neeative element of the unknowable, im- 

 personal {'' Matter "), indeterminate ('' Becoming "), 

 impermanent ("Time"), indefinite ("ignorance"), 

 and imperfect (pain) — in short, of Evil; it is a world 

 of Becoming and of Time, and not a true cosmos. 

 But yet it is ever progressing towards perfection ; 

 Evil and Imperfection is that which is ever vanish- 

 ing away. It is impermanent itself and the cause of 

 impermanence in the imperfect, the lawless and a- 

 cosmic factor, which must be continually transcended 

 and ultimately eliminated in the process towards 

 perfect Being. And of that process all phenomenal 

 things are transitory phases, that bear within them 

 the curse of change and the seed of death, and we 

 ourselves also must pass away. We are imperfect 

 phases in the interaction between God and the Egos, 

 the reflexes of relations that are not satisfactory or 

 harmonious, and hence endure but for season. Hard 

 then as is our lot, and bitter as are the pains the 

 flow of Time and the impermanence of life inflict, 

 it is yet not ill that the all-receiving gate of Death 

 should open up to us a prospect of promotion into 

 a more abiding state of being. 



§ 27. Thus the complete account of man's rela- 

 tion to God is that our actual selves, and the world 

 In which we live, are correlated results of an inter- 

 action between the Deity and ultimate spiritual 

 beings or Egos, of whom we form the conscious 

 part (ch. ix. §§ 22, 24). The imperfection and transit- 

 orlness of this world of ours is conditioned by the 



1 "And the plan of Zeus was working out its fulfilment." — Iliad 



