flash from the infinite source of light; and that the individual, who in his conscious activity embodies the higher principle, may not have known the previous thought, or, knowing it, not have estimated it correctly. Either of these views may pass under the name of a theory of progress, but they are widely different. The second of these positions is just a paraphrase of the theory implied in the application of evolution to history, and has already been supposed to be inadequate. Yet it is altogether more satisfying than the first, and more in accordance with the facts of history. It will hardly be denied that Aristotle does scant justice to Plato, when he undertakes to criticise his master, but it is equally certain that in its net result the thought of Aristotle is a higher interpretation of reality. The same is usually said to be true of Hegel and Kant. To take an illustration from another region, it may be shown that the new conscience, found in the higher exponents of Puritanism, has direct affiliation with the formative conception of Shakespeare's tragedies; and yet the great poet of Puritanism is very far from thinking of himself as the heir of Shakespeare. Hence it seems beyond dispute that a direct understanding of the utterances of a great writer is not the essential condition of development. Indeed, if the movement of consciousness is to be limited to a succession of ideas, each of which is expressly put forth as the fulfillment of its predecessor, it could well be doubted whether the facts of history were facts of consciousness. Rather than such a mechanical process of bricklaying, events of history would be more intelligently viewed as manifestations of the infinite, unconscious and unknowable.
But we are not confined to a choice between these two alternatives. The consciousness of a time really includes its laws, institutions, science, art, buildings, customs, and religion, and conscious contact must be taken as the effort to express, perhaps as a higher law, or a nobler art, the unity of all these things. According to this broader significance of consciousness it may be denied that progress is either an evolution of connected ideas, or a series of thoughts each of which is due to the
