CHAPTER XII. 



CONCLUSION, 



\ r. We have arrived at the end of our inquiry, 

 and at a point where It seems merely necessary to 

 gather together the converging clues that resulted 

 from our discussion of the problems of man's past, 

 present, and future environment, Into a single and 

 connected solution of the Riddle of the Sphinx. 

 And though the principle which guided our steps 

 throughout was one and the same, viz., faith In the 

 world-process and the metaphysics of Evolution, we 

 have yet to answer explicitly the question, which so 

 far we have answered only by Implication, as to 

 what Is the final meaning and end of the world- 

 process, the nature of that ** far-off divine event to 

 which the whole creation moves." and In what sense 

 the world can be said to have a beginning and an 

 end. And this is in some ways the most crucial 

 and difficult of all questions ; for our speculations 

 will have availed us nothing If we ultimately fail to 

 prove how the conception of a world-process can be 

 attributed to ultimate reality. We must consider 

 then, {a) what Is the ultimate meaning of the world- 

 process, {b) what were Its beginning and previous or 

 pre-cosmic conditions, (c) what is its end or post- 

 cosmic state, {d) whether such an end Is possible, i.e., 

 capable of actual realization. 



\ 2. The answer to the first question follows 



