第205章
Quickly following the arrest of Evolution in aggregates that are unstable,and following it at periods often long delayed but reached at last in thestable aggregates around us, we saw that even to the vast aggregate of whichall these are parts even to the Earth as a whole -- Dissolution must eventuallycome. Nay we even saw grounds for the belief that local assemblages of thosefar vaster masses. we know as stars will eventually be dissipated: the questionremaining unanswered whether our Sidereal System as a whole may not at atime beyond the reach of finite imagination share the same fate. While inferringthat in many parts of the visible universe dissolution is following evolution,and that throughout these regions evolution will presently recommence, thequestion whether there is an alteration of evolution and dissolution in thetotality of things is one which must be left unanswered as beyond the reachof human intelligence.
If, however, we lean to the belief that what happens to the parts willeventually happen to the whole, we are led to entertain the conception ofEvolutions that have filled an immeasurable past and Evolutions that willfill an immeasurable future. We can no longer contemplate the visible creationas having a definite beginning or end, or as being isolated. It becomes unifiedwith all existence before and after; and the Force which the Universe presents,falls into the same category with its Space and Time, as admitting of nolimitation in thought. §191. This conception is congruous with the conclusion reached inPart I, where we dealt with the relation between the Knowable and the Unknowable.
It was there shown by analysis of both religious and scientific ideas,that while knowledge of the Cause which produces effects on consciousnessis impossible, the existence of a Cause for these effects is a datum of consciousness.
Belief in a Power which transcends knowledge is that fundamental elementin Religion which survives all its changes of form. This inexpugnable beliefproved to be likewise that on which all exact Science is based. And thisis also the implication to which we are now led back by our completed synthesis.
The recognition of a persistent Force, ever changing its manifestations butunchanged in quantity throughout all past time and all future time, is thatwhich we find alone makes possible each concrete interpretation, and at lastunifies all concrete interpretations.
Towards some conclusion of this order, inquiry scientific, metaphysical,and theological, has been, and still is, manifestly advancing. The coalescenceof polytheistic conceptions into the monotheistic conception, and the reductionof the monotheistic conception to a more and more general form, in whichpersonal superintendence becomes merged in universal immanence, clearly showsthis advance. It is equally shown in the fading away of old theories about"essences," "potentialities," "occult virtues,"etc.; in the abandonment of such doctrines as those of "Platonic Ideas,""Pre-established Harmonies," and the like; and in the tendencytowards the identification of Being as present in consciousness, with Beingas otherwise conditioned beyond consciousness. Still more conspicuous isit in the progress of Science, which, from the beginning, has been grouping.isolatedfacts under laws, uniting special laws under more general laws, and so reachingon to laws of higher and higher generality; until the conception of universallaws has become familiar to it.
Unification being thus the characteristic of developing thought of allkinds, and eventual arrival at unity being fairly inferable, there arisesyet a further support to our conclusion. Since, unless there is some otherand higher unity, the unity we have reached must be that towards which developingthought tends.