The Complex Vision

n as to the nature of the Gods. Such an instrument is, as we have seen, the apex-thought of the complex vision using all its attributes in rhythmic uni

at such a conception "it is impossible for it ever to fall entirely away from what it has reached." For the same unfathomable duality which gave birth to the sons of the universe has given birth to men; and between these two, between the ideal figure

g other than the universe, must remain as great a mystery to the souls of the "compan

ty, finds a parallel in the complex vision of the sons of the universe which is their instrument of research and which leaves them also in the presence of an unfa

malice with love. They find themselves driven to creation and destruction. The complex vision, which is their

onciliation, the answer must be that such an ultimate reconciliation is as much beyond the reach of their vision as it is beyond the reach of ours. The attainment of such a reconciliation would seem

imordial aspects. We are compelled to think of a plurality of living souls of which our own is one; of certain ideal companions o

pace and only one succession of time; a pluralistic aspect, for the system of things gives birth continually to innumera

mpanions. It is only the existence of this indefinable medium which makes it possible for us to speak of a universe at all. For this medium is the objective ground, or basis, so to say, from the midst of which each individual vision creates its own universe, always appealing as it does so to that objective standard or pattern of truth offered by the vision of man's invisible companions. What we roughly

se companions' existence. And, at this ecstatic moment, all individual souls find their personality deepened to such a point that they feel themselves possessed of the very secret of the ultimate duality, feel themselves to be, in fact, unfathomable personifications of that duality. And their intimation or vision with regard to the gods presents it

ective vision is at its highest point, and since when our subjective vision is at its highest point it conveys the sensation, rightly or wrongly, that what we call our "uni

ound these companions they become real and actual, we must not forget that, in the long process of escaping from the subjectivity of ourselves into the objectivity of their existence, it was our own subjective vision with the rhythmic ecstasy of its apex-thought which led us to the brink of this

thing which is rather our parent than our creation. This objective reality of it, with the inevitable implication that it existed before we came on the scene at all, and will exist af

subjective vision of man creates the companions of men and then discovers them to be an objective reality, so the subjective vision of man creates the universe and then discovers the universe to be an objective reality. And in both cases this discovering finds its justification in a recog

f that ultimate duality which is the very stuff and texture of our creative vision, the universe becomes naturally the parent of man's invisible

ars, they know them not, the Heavenly Powers!" Pain and sorrow, both physical and mental, seem to soften the porous shell, so to spea

is an incredible relief. Merely to know that some sort of superhuman being, even without special preoccupation with human fate, can turn an amused or an indulgent clairvoyance towards our wretchedness, can "note" it with dispassionate sympathy, as we note the hurts of animals or plants, is a sort of consolation. It is a relief to know that what we feel when we are hurt to the breaking-point is not absolutely wasted and lost in the void, but is stored up in an

our complex vision reveals as to the nature of the gods does not satisfy in any obvious or facile manner this bitter need of humanity. If it did so satisfy it, th

be in league with a certain inveterate tragedy in thi

them seems likewise a not unnatural possibility. That the love in us draws towards us the love in them is a thing in complete accordance with our own relation to forms of life lower than ourselves. Tha

rtals that our hope lies. If this were all that we could look for, our condition would be as miserable as the condition

hered up and focused, as it were, all the vague and floating intimations of super-human sympathy, all the sha

e of Christ has become a symbol, an intermediary, a kind of cosmic high-priest, standing between all that is mortal and all

he baffled, thwarted, broken, unsatisfied love in every soul that has ever lived. It is in the heart of Christ that all the nameless sorrows and miseries, of the innumerable lives that Nature gives birth to, are stored up and remembered. Not one single pang, felt by plant or animal or bird or fish or man or plane

f all souls, the turning of the transitory into the eternal, of the mortal into the immortal, of the human into the divine; in another sense the fi

n it has been in so large a measure

st does not reduce the figure of Christ to a mere Ideal. As we have seen with regard to the primordial ideas of truth, be

tion of beauty, is always a return to something which has been latent in the eternal nature of the system o

ny living soul approaches the figure of Christ, or cries aloud upon Christ out of the depths of its misery, it cries aloud upon all the love that has ever e

for such pain and such joy are latent in the ultimate duality of love and malice, and in the heart of Christ this ultimate duality struggles with such terrible concentration that all the

the sins and sorrows of the world are laid, is not a mere logical conclusion of a certain set of th

ct of the will by which the lusts of the flesh, the pride of life, the possessive instinct, the hatred of the body, the malice which resists creation, the power of pride, are all renounc

the love in all living souls perpetually struggles; and against the attainment of the eternal vision the malice in all living souls pe

iculate concentration, than it is embodied in our nature. Between us and the gods there must be a reciprocal vibration, as there is a reciprocal vibration between us and plants and beasts and oceans and hills. The precise nature of such reciprocity may well be left a matter for vague and unphilosophical speculation; because the important aspect of it, i

Intermediary between the transitory and the permanent, contemplates the spectacle of the unf