s of Nature, the _driving_ Spirit which is continually urging
her on, and the _directing_ Spirit which guides her to an end. We are
in touch with the true Heart of Nature.

So as we take a comprehensive view of Nature both in her outward
bodily form and her inner spiritual reality, and find her to be an
interconnected whole in which all the parts are interrelated with one
another, one body and one mind, self-contained and self-conscious,
and driven by a self-organising, self-governing, self-directing
Activity--we should regard her as nothing _less_ than a _Personal
Being._ In ordinary language we speak of Nature as a Person, and
when we so speak we should not regard ourselves as speaking
figuratively: we should mean quite literally and as a fact that she is a
Person. And we should look upon that Personal Being, in which we
are ourselves included, as in process of realising an ideal hidden
within her--an ideal which in its turn is ever perfecting itself.

* * *

What is meant by Nature being a Person, and a Person actuated by a
hidden ideal, and being in process of realising that ideal, and what is
meant by an ideal perfecting itself, may be best explained with the
help of an illustration.

First it will be necessary to explain how we can regard Nature as a
_Person,_ or at least as nothing less than a Person--though possibly
_more._ It is contended by many authorities that we cannot regard
any collective being, such as a college or a regiment--and Nature is a
collective being--as a true person. But their arguments are
unconvincing. They allow that "I" am a person because "I" possess
rationality and self-consciousness. But "I" am a system or
organisation of innumerable beings--electrons, groupings of
electrons, groups of groupings in rising complexity. "I"--the body
and soul which makes up "me"--am nothing but a collective being
myself. And if we take the case of "England" as an example of a
collective being, we shall see that England has as much right to be
considered a personal being as any single Englishman, composed as
he is of innumerable separate beings.

Perhaps to one who is representing England among strange peoples
the personality of England is more apparent than to those who are
constantly living in England itself. To the foreign people among
whom this representative is living England is a very real person.
What she thinks about them, what she does, what her intentions are,
what is her character and disp