Principles of western civilisation

VII THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE 219

As the mind begins to slowly apprehend the relation of the position here outlined to that central principle of human development which we have been insisting on throughout; namely, that the present and all its interests is, by necessity inherent in the evolutionary process, destined in time to pass entirely under the control of the future and the infinite; we feel that we have travelled to the verge of the statement of a natural law of wide reach and significance. As we look forward through history we catch a glimpse fora moment of the real meaning of that fundamental instinct which, since the opening of our era, may be perceived to have continuously struggled to obtain scientific expression in Western thought ; namely, that the life of our civilisation involves some principle which not only transcends all theories of an equilibrium of enlightened self-interest in the present, but a principle which cannot be included in any theory of the corporate interests of the State, however extended. Nay, more, there flashes on the mind at this point a first view of the scientific significance in the great drama of evolution of those concepts of the Christian religion, such as “ justification,” “salvation,” and ‘atonement,’ over which the human will has for ages waged such dogged, prolonged, and bitter controversy. They are concepts of that character by which, in the epoch in which the present and the finite begin to pass under the control of the future and the infinite, the antithesis which has been opened in the human mind can alone be closed. They are the concepts by which the human mind has first risen to that necessary sense, already indicated, of direct and personal responsibility to principles cosmic in their reach.