52 CREATIVE INVOLUTION 



thought, the design, the ingenious perception, the recogni- 

 tion of principles which gave the new individual the ca- 

 pacity for meeting these new, strange, greater dangers. 



" And thus cycle after cycle, effort and achievement 

 went on. Ever the organisms, perfect, happy, leading a 

 blessed life, which were the completion of one stage of 

 effort, were themselves small, insignificant, exposed to 

 danger in a vast Universe. . . . 



" And, said the Unaeans, our bodies are one stage in 

 this ever expanding act of protection. The process of 

 evolution is a one way process, it lasts forever, it is the 

 conquest of the large by the small. Within the body are 

 processes surpassing those that the skill of man can de- 

 vise. Within is an intelligence of corresponding degree, 

 and corresponding to the perfection of function an inner 

 happiness which the body exists to protect. But men 

 themselves are small and in the vast Universe must com- 

 bine together for protection, must make bodies in whose 

 power of co-ordinated action, the power of co-ordinated 

 action of a single individual is repeated. In the duty 

 and valour and faithfulness of the individual lies the 

 coherence of the Nation, it but exists as a mere organism 

 in virtue of a higher order of action on the part of the 

 individuals composing it. And thus it is in virtue of 

 powers, emotions, characteristics far higher than those he 

 is conscious of in his individual existence, that an in- 

 dividual comes to be. As he makes, so is he made. 



" So much for their mythology." 

 C. H. HINTON: An Episode of Flatland, pp. 176-8. 



. . ." Through the words, lines and verses runs the 

 simple inspiration which is the whole poem. So, among 

 the dissociated individuals, one life goes on moving: 

 everywhere the tendency to individualise is opposed and 



