But in History it is different. We are here dealing with material which
is not in space, and which has not resulted through any mere succession
in time. The material, in fact, is timeless, because it is a synthesis
of factors which cannot be reckoned mechanically, and which requires a
great span of time in order to be constructed by the spirit of man. At
this level the spiritual life has gained a reality which is
over-personal as well as personal. It is true that this over-personal
reality is in the _mind_ of the individual; but that does not mean that
the reality is no more than a private experience. Its content is clearly
now higher and more significant than the individual's own life. That we
cannot locate in space this over-personal aspect of the ideal is
probably a disadvantage. But this cannot be helped; and [p.91] it cannot
possibly be otherwise, simply because the over-personal reality is not a
spatial thing. The same may be said of the content of individual
experience, even when it does not for the time being hold before itself
any ideal. But such over-personal elements mean more than was to be
found on the level of _knowing_ the world. A further development of
spiritual life has taken place; and reality has become _objective_ in
its nature and _subjective_ in its apprehension and appropriation by the
individual. Reality has, through the over-personal which has evolved in
history, obtained _a cosmic significance_; and it is out of this region
that a _Lebensanschauung_ as well as a true _Weltanschauung_ have
developed.

This digression from the subject of this chapter has probably prepared
us to see that the potentiality of consciousness and the presence of
over-personal elements presenting themselves to consciousness are the
two main elements in the construction of the several grades of reality
which present themselves on the lower level of Nature and on the higher