Page:The Conception of God (1897).djvu/385

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348
THE CONCEPTION OF GOD

a concrete whole as includes every shadow and wavelet of finite experience; and it transcends relatively illusory points of view precisely because it includes them. Therefore, from the absolute point of view, there is real change, and in only one direction, in time; there is real progress wherever there is a temporal success; there is a real difference between past and future time; in brief, all temporal items and significances remain what they are, even while, as included in the completer whole, they are viewed as forming a part of the content of the Eternal Instant. The eternal Now is simply not the temporal present. On the other hand, all present temporal moments are amongst the facts which form the experience of the Absolute Moment. And so, in general, we may say, to Professor Mezes or to any other objector: “Show us what you need for the moral world, in the way of progress, of real difference between past, present, and future, and whatever else you choose to define, and we will undertake to find a place for such facts, precisely in so far as they are facts, in the organisation of the Eternal Moment.”


III
PROFESSOR LE CONTE, AND THE CONCEPT OF EVOLUTION

As I approach, finally, the comments of my revered teacher Professor Le Conte, I must first express the strong hope that he may find in this supplementary paper a more or less acceptable development of some