contact with. New convictions and new points of view have now actually
occurred within his soul; man has become conscious of a spiritual
inwardness, brought forth through the presence of an over-personal
spiritual life coupled with his own spiritual needs. With the possession
of such spiritual elements, how is it possible for him any more to look
upon the world and human life with the same eyes as before? The dawning
of a new reality has made him a new creature; he is now compelled by his
own deeper nature to preserve and to reflect the light which is within
him; and all this brings prominently forward the need of something other
for the progress of the world than the first look of things is able to
show. It is in such manner as this that we must account for all the
ideals which have moved mankind from the level of animalism and greed to
the level of civilisation, culture, morals, and religion. The work is
far from being completed: the world still clings to the old level of
ordinary life, and is so slow to grasp the value of the life of
spiritual ideals. Still, something has been accomplished in the course
of the ages; and although, probably, the progress has not been
continuous, there has been a gain in the "long run." But the point to
bear in mind is that it is the power of the over-individual ideal which
has carried the race along. Ideals have been perverted, it is true; they
have been [p.146] drawn down and mixed with what was inferior in its
nature, yet they have never been completely destroyed in this evil
process. They have still a marvellous power of disentangling themselves
from human perversions, and of revealing themselves once more in their
pristine power and glory. "But the spiritual life declares its ability
also positively within the human province through a persistent effort to
move outside the 'given' situation, through a tracing out and a holding
forth of ideals, through a longing after a more complete happiness and a
more complete truth. Why is not man satisfied with the relativity which
so obstinately clings to his existence? Why has he a longing for the