They
co-operate, according to the degree of their development, in
collective or tribal purposes, larger ends thus enveloping lesser
ones, until an absolutely single, final and climacteric purpose
subserved by all things without exception might conceivably be
reached. It is needless to say that the appearances conflict with
such a view. Any resultant, as I said in my third lecture, MAY have
been purposed in advance, but none of the results we actually know
in is world have in point of fact been purposed in advance in all
their details. Men and nations start with a vague notion of being
rich, or great, or good. Each step they make brings unforeseen
chances into sight, and shuts out older vistas, and the
specifications of the general purpose have to be daily changed. What
is reached in the end may be better or worse than what was proposed,
but it is always more complex and different.
Our different purposes also are at war with each other. Where one
can't crush the other out, they compromise; and the result is again
different from what anyone distinctly proposed beforehand. Vaguely
and generally, much of what was purposed may be gained; but
everything makes strongly for the view that our world is
incompletely unified teleologically and is still trying to get its
unification better organized.
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