26 MYSTICISM AND LOGIC 



Evolutionism, in basing itself upon the notion of 

 progress, which is change from the worse to the better, 

 allows the notion of time, as it seems to me, to become 

 its tyrant rather than its servant, and thereby loses that 

 impartiality of contemplation which is the source of all 

 that is best in philosophic thought and feeling. Meta- 

 physicians, as we saw, have frequently denied altogether 

 the reality of time. I do not wish to do this ; I wish 

 only to preserve the mental outlook which inspired the 

 denial, the attitude which, in thought, regards the past 

 as having the same reality as the present and the same 

 importance as the future. "In so far," says Spinoza, 1 

 " as the mind conceives a thing according to the dictate 

 of reason, it will be equally affected whether the idea is 

 that of a future, past, or present thing." It is this " con- 

 ceiving according to the dictate of reason " that I find 

 lacking in the philosophy which is based on evolution. 



IV. GOOD AND EVIL 



Mysticism maintains that all evil is illusory, and some- 

 times maintains the same view as regards good, but more 

 often holds that all Reality is good. Both views are to 

 be found in Heraclitus : " Good and ill are one," he says, 

 but again, " To God all things are fair and good and right, 

 but men hold some things wrong and some right." A 

 similar twofold position is to be found in Spinoza, but he 

 uses the word " perfection " when he means to speak of 

 the good that is not merely human. " By reality and 

 perfection I mean the same thing," he says ; 2 but else- 

 where we find the definition : " By good I shall mean that 

 which we certainly know to be useful to us." 3 Thus 

 perfection belongs to Reality in its own nature, but good- 



1 Ethics, Bk. IV, Prop. LXII. 2 Ethics, Pt. II, Df. VI. 



Ib., Pt. IV, Df. I. 



