The Complex Vision | Page 6

of one space and one
time. Even of space and time themselves, since the only thing that
really "fills them," so to speak, to the brim, is the universal ether, it
might be said that they are the expression of this universal ether in its
relation to all the objects which it contains.
Thus the conclusion to which I am driven is that the dome of space, out
of which the sun shines by day and the stars by night, contains no vast
gulfs of absolute nothingness into which the soul that hates life may
flee away and be at rest. At the same time the soul that hates life need
not despair. The chances, as we come to estimate them, for and against
the soul's survival after death, seem so curiously even, that it may
easily happen that the extreme longing of the soul for annihilation may
prove in such a balancing of forces the final deciding stroke. And quite
apart from death, I have tried to show in this book, how in the mere fact
of the unfathomable depths into which all physical bodies as well as all
immaterial souls recede there is an infinite opportunity for any soul to

find a way of escape from life, either by sinking into the depths of its
own physical being, or by sinking into the depths of its own spiritual
substance.
The main purpose of the book reveals, however, the only escape from
all the pain and misery of life which is worthy of the soul of man. And
this is not so much an escape from life as a transfiguring of the nature
of life by means of a newly born attitude toward it. This attitude toward
life, of which I have tried to catch at least the general outlines, is the
attitude which the soul struggles to maintain by gathering together all
its diffused memories of those rare moments when it entered into the
eternal vision.
And I have indicated as clearly as I could how it comes about that in
the sphere of practical life the only natural and consistent realization of
this attitude would be the carrying into actual effect of what I call "the
idea of communism."
This "idea of communism," in which the human implications of the
eternal vision become realized, is simply the conception of a system of
human society founded upon the creative instinct, instead of upon the
possessive instinct in humanity.
I endeavour to make clear that such a reorganization of society, upon
such a basis does not imply any radical change in human nature. It only
implies a liberation of a force that already exists, of the force in the
human soul that is centrifugal, or outflowing, as opposed to the force
that is centripetal, or indrawing. Such a force has always been active in
the lives of individuals. It only remains to liberate that force until it
reaches the general consciousness of the race, to make such a
reconstruction of human society not only ideal, but actual and effective.
CONTENTS
Chapter I.
The Complex Vision 1

Chapter II.
The Aspects of the Complex Vision 20
Chapter III.
The Soul's Apex-Thought 56
Chapter IV.
The Revelation of the Complex Vision 71
Chapter V.
The Ultimate Duality 100
Chapter VI.
The Ultimate Ideas 120
Chapter VII.
The Nature of Art 160
Chapter VIII.
The Nature of Love 194
Chapter IX.
The Nature of the Gods 214
Chapter X.
The Figure of Christ 225
Chapter XI.

The Illusion of Dead Matter 248
Chapter XII.
Pain and Pleasure 270
Chapter XIII.
The Reality of the Soul in Relation to Modern Thought 293
Chapter XIV.
The Idea of Communism 323 Conclusion 339

PREFACE
The speculative system which I have entitled "The Philosophy of the
Complex Vision" is an attempt to bring into prominence, in the sphere
of definite and articulate thought, those scattered and chaotic
intimations which hitherto have found expression rather in Art than in
Philosophy.
It has come to be fatally clear to me that between the great
metaphysical systems of rationalized purpose and the actual shocks,
experiences, superstitions, illusions, disillusions, reactions, hope and
despairs, of ordinary men and women there is a great gulf fixed. It has
become clear to me that the real poignant personal drama in all our
lives, together with those vague "marginal" feelings which overshadow
all of us with a sense of something half-revealed and half withheld, has
hardly any point of contact with these formidable edifices of pure logic.
On the other hand the tentative, hesitating, ambiguous hypotheses of
Physical Science, transforming themselves afresh with every new
discovery, seem, when the portentous mystery of Life's real secret
confronts us, to be equally remote and elusive.

When in such a dilemma one turns to the vitalistic and pragmatic
speculations of