50 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS. n 



true of each part, is true of the whole. Natural 

 knowledge tends more and more to the conclusion 

 that " all the choir of heaven and furniture of the 

 earth " are the transitory forms of parcels of cos- 

 mic substance wending along the road of evolu- 

 tion, from nebulous potentiahty, through endless 

 growths of sun and planet and satelUte; through 

 all varieties of matter; through infinite diversities 

 of life and thought; possibly, through modes of 

 being of which we neither have a conception, nor 

 are competent to form any, back to the indefina- 

 ble latency from which they arose. Thus the 

 most obvious attribute of the cosmos is its imper- 

 manence. It assumes the aspect not so much of 

 a permanent entity as of a changeful process in 

 which naught endures save the flow of energy and 

 the rational order which pervades it. 



We have climbed our bean-stalk and have 

 reached a wonderland in which the common and 

 the familiar become things new and strange. In 

 the exploration of the cosmic process thus typi- 

 fied, the highest intelUgence of man finds inex- 

 haustible employment; giants are subdued to our 

 service; and the spiritual affections of the con- 

 templative philosopher are engaged by beauties 

 worthy of, eternal constancy. 



But there is another aspect of the cosmic pro- 

 cess, so perfect as a mechanism, so beautiful as a 

 work of art. Where the cosmopoietic energy 



