Abide with me, Fast Falls the Eventide
Whitehead on the Metaphysics of a Hymn
In two passages in Process and Reality, Whitehead turns to the hymn Abide with Me, Fast Falls the Eventide to illustrate what he identifies as the basic problem of metaphysics: how to do justice to our integral experience—the lived reality of both flux and the longing for permanence. He writes, “The best rendering of integral experience... is often to be found in the utterances of religious aspiration. One of the reasons of the thinness of so much modern metaphysics is its neglect of this wealth of expression of ultimate feeling.”
For Whitehead, religious utterances—this hymn, for example—often give voice to what philosophical systems overlook: that in the inescapable flux, something abides; and in overwhelming permanence, something escapes into flux. “Permanence,” he writes, “can be snatched only out of flux; and the passing moment can find its adequate intensity only by its submission to permanence.”
The metaphysical task, then, is not to choose between "the sense of flux" and "the sense of permanence," but to account for their interpenetration—the way the moment flows yet holds, and the eternal shimmers within the transient.
For Whitehead, religious utterances—this hymn, for example—often give voice to what philosophical systems overlook: that in the inescapable flux, something abides; and in overwhelming permanence, something escapes into flux. “Permanence,” he writes, “can be snatched only out of flux; and the passing moment can find its adequate intensity only by its submission to permanence.”
The metaphysical task, then, is not to choose between "the sense of flux" and "the sense of permanence," but to account for their interpenetration—the way the moment flows yet holds, and the eternal shimmers within the transient.
First Passage
"The best rendering of integral experience, expressing its general form divested of irrelevant details, is often to be found in the utterances of religious aspiration. One of the reasons of the thinness of so much modern metaphysics is its neglect of this wealth of expression of ultimate feeling.
Accordingly we find in the first two lines of a famous hymn a full expression of the union of the two notions in one integral experience:
Abide with me;
Fast falls the eventide.
Here the first line expresses the permanences—‘abide,’ ‘me,’ and the ‘Being’ addressed; and the second line sets these permanences amid the inescapable flux. Here at length we find formulated the complete problem of metaphysics."
— Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality
Accordingly we find in the first two lines of a famous hymn a full expression of the union of the two notions in one integral experience:
Abide with me;
Fast falls the eventide.
Here the first line expresses the permanences—‘abide,’ ‘me,’ and the ‘Being’ addressed; and the second line sets these permanences amid the inescapable flux. Here at length we find formulated the complete problem of metaphysics."
— Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality
Eventide is an old-fashioned or poetic word that means evening or the time of day when the sun is setting. It evokes a sense of quietness, fading light, and the transition from day to night. In the context of the hymn "Abide with Me; Fast Falls the Eventide," the word carries emotional and symbolic weight. It suggests not just the end of the day, but also the twilight of life, a time of vulnerability, letting go, or preparation for death, often accompanied by a longing for divine presence or comfort. So, "Fast falls the eventide" means: "Evening is quickly approaching," with both literal and metaphorical implications.
Religious Utterance as Metaphysical Resource
Whitehead asserts that the "utterances of religious aspiration" often render integral experience—the union of permanence and change—better than abstract metaphysical systems. He’s not saying religious language is always right, but that it expresses the form of ultimate feeling more vividly and more holistically than many philosophical treatises. Religious language, when taken seriously, is existentially dense.
Critique of Modern Metaphysics
He criticizes much of modern metaphysics for its "thinness"—its tendency to strip away what he considers the richness of ultimate feeling, often found in religious expression. In doing so, it misses the emotional texture of lived experience.
The Hymn as Illustration
The hymn “Abide with me; Fast falls the eventide” serves as a concise formulation of the central metaphysical tension:
“Abide with me” expresses the longing for and invocation of permanence: a stable "me," a stable companion ("Thou"), and the desire for their ongoing relation.
“Fast falls the eventide” acknowledges the inescapable flux—the falling of night, the passage of time, the vulnerability of the moment.
The Complete Problem of Metaphysics
Whitehead suggests that these two lines formulate the complete metaphysical problem: How can permanence and change coexist in one experience? How does Being persist amid Becoming?
In Process and Reality, the relationship between permanence and flux—of the eternal and the temporal—is the very heartbeat of Whitehead’s philosophy. Actual occasions, or concrescing subjects, arise through their prehensions of the past (flux) while also reaching toward value and permanence: the lure of potentiality from God’s primordial nature, the impulse to contribute something enduring beyond the fleeting moment, and the intuition of a deeper reality—a “Harmony of Harmonies” in the consequent nature of God, where all events are held in everlasting memory. The two lines of the hymn express this fusion in poetic form. Flux refers to the act of experiencing (concrescence) and also the passing away of subjective immediacy (perishing.)
Religious Utterance as Metaphysical Resource
Whitehead asserts that the "utterances of religious aspiration" often render integral experience—the union of permanence and change—better than abstract metaphysical systems. He’s not saying religious language is always right, but that it expresses the form of ultimate feeling more vividly and more holistically than many philosophical treatises. Religious language, when taken seriously, is existentially dense.
Critique of Modern Metaphysics
He criticizes much of modern metaphysics for its "thinness"—its tendency to strip away what he considers the richness of ultimate feeling, often found in religious expression. In doing so, it misses the emotional texture of lived experience.
The Hymn as Illustration
The hymn “Abide with me; Fast falls the eventide” serves as a concise formulation of the central metaphysical tension:
“Abide with me” expresses the longing for and invocation of permanence: a stable "me," a stable companion ("Thou"), and the desire for their ongoing relation.
“Fast falls the eventide” acknowledges the inescapable flux—the falling of night, the passage of time, the vulnerability of the moment.
The Complete Problem of Metaphysics
Whitehead suggests that these two lines formulate the complete metaphysical problem: How can permanence and change coexist in one experience? How does Being persist amid Becoming?
In Process and Reality, the relationship between permanence and flux—of the eternal and the temporal—is the very heartbeat of Whitehead’s philosophy. Actual occasions, or concrescing subjects, arise through their prehensions of the past (flux) while also reaching toward value and permanence: the lure of potentiality from God’s primordial nature, the impulse to contribute something enduring beyond the fleeting moment, and the intuition of a deeper reality—a “Harmony of Harmonies” in the consequent nature of God, where all events are held in everlasting memory. The two lines of the hymn express this fusion in poetic form. Flux refers to the act of experiencing (concrescence) and also the passing away of subjective immediacy (perishing.)
Second Passage
Whitehead returns to the hymn later in the book and writes:
"There are various contrasted qualities of temperament, which control the formation of the mentalities of different epochs. In a previous chapter (Part II, Ch. X) attention has already been drawn to the sense of permanence dominating the invocation ‘Abide with Me,’ and the sense of flux dominating the sequel ‘Fast Falls the Eventide.’
Ideals fashion themselves round these two notions, permanence and flux. In the inescapable flux, there is something that abides; in the overwhelming permanence, there is an element that escapes into flux. Permanence can be snatched only out of flux; and the passing moment can find its adequate intensity only by its submission to permanence. Those who would disjoin the two elements can find no interpretation of patent facts."
- Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality
Temperament and Epochs
Whitehead begins by acknowledging that different eras are shaped by different “qualities of temperament.” This is a subtle but important point: metaphysical outlooks are not purely rational constructions; they are rooted in moods, feelings, and cultural temperament. Each epoch may emphasize certain metaphysical poles over others—some favoring order and stability, others celebrating change and flow. Metaphysics, then, is not just about the world "as it is" but about how different times and cultures feel their way into the world.
Revisiting the Hymn
Whitehead recalls his earlier invocation of the hymn:
Abide with me;
Fast falls the eventide.
He reaffirms it as a profound metaphysical parable: “Abide with me” conveys permanence, a longing for constancy and rootedness; “Fast falls the eventide” dramatizes flux, the swift descent of night and the inevitability of change.
Ideals Shaped by the Two Poles
Whitehead insists that both permanence and flux are metaphysical ultimates, and that our ideals are born in the tension between them. The desire for truth, beauty, justice, love—these ideals only make sense when understood in light of both:
- Flux without permanence would render life unstable, incoherent, and chaotic—nothing could endure, nothing could be grasped or valued.
- Permanence without flux would render life static, dead, and incapable of novelty—no adventure, no transformation, no becoming.
A Dialectical Vision
Whitehead’s line—“Permanence can be snatched only out of flux; and the passing moment can find its adequate intensity only by its submission to permanence”—expresses a dialectical metaphysics. He is saying that:
- What lasts can only arise through what passes.
- What is most intense in the moment is precisely what surrenders to something enduring—some form, some value, some connection.
This is not a balance in the ordinary sense, but a mutual enfolding of opposites. Flux and permanence are not separable, sequential phases; they co-constitute experience. Every moment, for Whitehead, is a becoming (flux) that aims at value (permanence).
A Warning Against Dualism
Finally, Whitehead warns: “Those who would disjoin the two elements can find no interpretation of patent facts.” This is a rebuke to metaphysical systems that isolate Being from Becoming, or that deny either process or structure. To separate them is to misrepresent reality itself. In Whitehead’s process metaphysics, every actuality is an act of integration—a concrescence—of what flows and what endures.
This passage, like the earlier one, reveals Whitehead’s commitment to a poetic realism: one that honors both the passing and the permanent, the felt and the conceptual, the religious and the philosophical. His metaphysics is, at root, a meditation on experience, and his use of the hymn reminds us that metaphysical problems are not just abstract puzzles—they are existential tensions felt in the human heart.