301 
one more specimen, in quite a different direction. Thus far Spencerian 
we have been learning the history of all things from the im- pS eTs^nd 
perceptible. But our philosopher is a prophet too, and can ± ' erfectl0n * 
even deduce other worlds of happiness and perfection from 
persistent force. He tells us how Evolution must proceed 
through “ Equilibration ” to final Dissolution and Omni- 
present Death (514) ; and then suddenly cheers up, three 
pages further on, with the prophetic vision that “ Evolution 
can only end in the establishment of the greatest perfection 
and universal happiness.” And this is a piece of genuine 
inspiration, for he does not even profess to give a word of 
reason for it. The little that he does say about the scientific 
future points entirely the other way. For the only possible 
revival that he contemplates after omnipresent death is the 
chance of a future collision of some pair of wandering stars, 
which may generate another indefinite or definite nebula ; 
and then all the same processes may start again. But why 
that future nebula is to reach any more perfection or happi- 
ness than this, or its inhabitants to make any greater 
“ advance towards harmony between man’s mental nature 
and the conditions of his existence,” or even why there 
must be men at all there instead of some other kind of final 
products of Evolution — is all left in the region of the un- 
fathomable, except to the prophet to whom it has been re- 
vealed. It certainly is hard upon his disciples to have to 
be content with his assurance that a future life of happiness 
and harmony and perfection is in store for somebody else, 
but only omnipresent and eternal death for them. That, how- 
ever, is the common creed of evolutionary cosmogonists and 
disbelievers in the eternal life that we believe in . 
VOL. XVII. 
Y 
