s of _their_ essence that they should ever advance and
grow.

The eternal vision includes in its own inmost rhythm the idea and
spectacle of inexhaustible growth; for, although it beholds all
things "under the form of eternity," its own nature is the nature of
a creative gesture, of a supreme "work of art," whereby it
approximates to the ideal even in the midst of the real. The "form
of eternity" under which it visualizes the world is not a dead or
static eternity but an eternity of living growth. The peace and quiet
which it attains is not the peace and quiet of the equilibrium which
means "nothingness" but the peace and quiet of the equilibrium
which means the rhythmic movement of life. The truth which it
creates is a truth which lends itself to infinite development upon
lines already laid down from the beginning. The beauty which it
creates is a beauty which lends itself to infinite development upon
lines laid down from the beginning.

And this truth, this beauty, this goodness, are all of them nothing
less than the projection of the soul itself--of all the souls which
constitute the system of things--in the mysterious outflowing of
the ultimate duality. And when we make use of the expression
"from the beginning" we are using a mere metaphorical sign-post.
There is no beginning of the system of things and there is no end.
"From the beginning" means nothing except "from eternity"; and
in the immortal figure of Christ the beginning and the end are one.

In my analysis of the ultimate duality which is the secret of the soul
I have said little about sex. The modern tendency is to over-emphasize
the importance of this thing and to seek its influence in
regions it can never enter. Many attributes of the soul are sexless;
and since only one attribute of the soul, namely sensation, is
entirely devoted to the body and unable to function except through
the body, it is ridiculous and unphilosophical to make sex the
profoundest aspect of truth which we know. The tendency to lay
stress upon sex, at the expense of all sexless aspects of the soul, is
a tendency which springs directly from the inert malice of the
abyss What the instinct of sex secretly desires is that the very
fountains of life should be invaded by sex and penetrated by sex.
But the fountains of life can never be invaded by sex; because the
fountains of life sink into that eternal vision which transcends all
sex and reduces sex to its proper place as one single