194 The Spiritual Life.
realisetherelativityofevil, andunderstandthat
aqualityv^hich at onetimew^as good,as sub-
serving the progress of the universe, becomes
evilwhenitshouldhavebeenleftbehindinthe
sweep of evolution,andwhen persisting intoa
stage higher than that to which it belonged,
it retards the progress which once it had
accelerated.
Evolution,on itsreturningpath,isunfolding
thelife-sideofnature,andismaking,asitwere,
mattermore and moreplastic,moreand more
delicate, more and more complicated in its
organisation, until by its very complexity its
equilibrium is so unstable that it takes very
easily shapes of various kinds under impulses
fromwithin and becomesa mere graceful gar-
ment in which life is expressed, until, finally,
matter is nothing more than the subtle form
whichexpresseslifebylimitingit,anditchanges
formwitheveryimpulsefromthelife,andtakes
on new shapes with the different impulses of
the out-going and in-coming life; and this is
evolution. When man begins to understand
whatevolution means, he then regardsevery-
thingwhichhelpstowardsevolutionasbeingon
the lines of harmonywiththe purposesof the
universe, and thereforewith being nowon the
side of greater and greater integration, of the
