When we have once thoroughly grasped the monotheistic conception of the universe as an organic whole, animated by the omnipresent spirit of God, we have forever taken leave of that materialism to which the universe was merely an endless multitude of phenomena. We begin to catch glimpses of the meaning and dramatic purpose of things; at all events we rest assured that there really is such a meaning. Though the history of our lives, and of all life upon our planet, as written down by the unswerving finger of Nature, may exhibit all events and their final purpose in unmistakable sequence, yet to our limited vision the several fragments of the record, like the leaves of the Cumæan sibyl, caught by the fitful breezes of circumstance and whirled wantonly hither and thither, lie in such intricate confusion that no ingenuity can enable us wholly to decipher the legend. But could we attain to a knowledge commensurate with the reality--could we penetrate the hidden depths where, according to Dante (_Paradiso_, xxxiii. 85), the story of Nature, no longer scattered in truant leaves, is bound with divine love in a mystic volume, we should find therein no traces of hazard or incongruity. From man's origin we gather hints of his destiny, and the study of evolution leads our thoughts through Nature to God. CAMBRIDGE, March 2, 1899. [Illustration] CONTENTS THE MYSTERY OF EVIL I. _The Serpent's Promise to the Woman_ 3 II. _The Pilgrim's Burden_ 8 III. _Manichæism and Calvinism_ 14 IV. _The Dramatic Unity of Nature_ 22 V. _What Conscious Life is made of_ 27 VI. _Without the Element of Antagonism there could be no Consciousness, and therefore no World_ 34 VII. _A Word of Caution_ 40 VIII. _The Hermit and the Angel_ 43 IX. _Man's Rise from the Innocence of Brutehood_ 48 X. _The Relativity of Evil_ 54 THE COSMIC ROOTS OF LOVE AND SELF-SACRIFICE I. _The Summer Field, and what it tells us_ 59 II. _Seeming Wastefulness of the Cosmic Process_ 65 III. _Caliban's Philosophy_ 72 IV. _Can it be that the Cosmic Process has no Relation to Moral Ends?_ 74 V. _First Stages in the Genesis of Man_ 80 VI. _The Central Fact in the Genesis of Man_ 86 VII. _The Chief Cause of Man's lengthened Infancy_ 88 VIII. _Some of its Effects_ 96 IX. _Origin of Moral Ideas and Sentiments_ 102