he type of mind for whom "truth" is a smoothly
evolutionary affair, an affair of steady "progress," and for whom,
therefore, the mere fact of an idea being "a modern idea" implies
that it is "true" and the mere fact of an idea being a classical idea
or a mediaeval idea implies that it is crude and inadequate if not
completely "false."

To the philosophy of the complex vision "truth" does not present
itself as an affair of smooth and steady historical evolution but as
something quite different from this--as a work of art, in fact,
dependent upon the struggle of the individual soul with itself, and
upon the struggle of "the souls of the sons of the universe" with
themselves. And although the struggle of the souls of "the sons of
the universe" towards a fuller clarifying of the mystery of life must
be regarded as having its concrete tangible history in time and
space, yet this history is not at all synonymous with what is
usually called "progress."

An individual human soul, the apex-thought of whose complex
vision has attained an extraordinary and unusual rhythm, must be
regarded as having approached nearer to the vision of "the sons of
the universe" although such an one may have lived in the days of
the patriarchs or in the Greek days or in the days of mediaevalism
or of the renaissance, than any modern rationalistic thinker who is
obsessed by "the latest tendencies of modern thought."

The souls of "the immortals" must certainly be regarded as
developing and changing and as constantly advancing towards the
realization of their hope and premonition. But this "advance" is
also, as we have seen, in the profoundest sense a "return," because
it is a movement towards an idea which already is implicit and
latent. And in the presence of this "advance," which is also a
"return," all historic ages of individual human souls are equal and
co-existent.

All real symbols are "true," wherever and whenever they are
invoked, because all real symbols are the expression of that rare
unity of the complex vision which is man's deepest approximation
to the mystery of life. The symbol of the cross, for instance, has
far more truth in it than any vague metaphorical expression such
as the "over-soul." The symbolic ritual of the Mass, for instance,
has far more truth in it than any metaphorical expression such as
the "life-force." And although both the Cross and the Mass are
inadequate and imperfect symbols with regard to the vision of "th