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Itself but appearance. It is but one appearance

among others, and, if it rises higher in one respect, in

other ways it certainly stands lower. And its weakness

lies, of course, in the fact that it is barely

theoretical. Philosophy may be made more undoubtedly,

and incidentally it is more; but its essence clearly

must be confined to intellectual activity. It is

therefore but a one-sided and inconsistent appearance of

the Absolute. And, so far as philosophy is religious, to

that extent we must allow that it has passed into

religion, and has ceased, as such, any longer to be

philosophy. I do not suggest to those who, dissatisfied

with religious beliefs, may have turned seriously to

metaphysics, that they will not find there what they

seek. But they will not find it there, or anywhere else,

unless they have brought it with them. Metaphysics has

no special connection with genuine religion, and neither

of these two appearances can be regarded as the

perfection of the other. The completion of each is not

to be found except in the Absolute.

--------------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER XXVI

THE ABSOLUTE AND ITS APPEARANCES

WE have seen now that Goodness, like Truth, is a one-

sided appearance. Each of these aspects, when we insist

on it, transcends itself. By its own movement each

developes itself beyond its own limits and is merged in

a higher and all-embracing Reality. It is time that we

endeavoured to close our work by explaining more fully

the character of this real unity. We have certainly not

attempted to do justice to the various spheres of

phenomena. The account which we have given of truth and

goodness is but a barren outline, and this was the case

before with physical Nature, and with the problem of the

soul. But to such defects we must resign ourselves. For

the object of this volume is to state merely a general

view about Reality, and to defend this view against more

obvious and prominent objections. The full and proper

defence would be a systematic account of all the regions

of appearance, for it is only the completed system which

in metaphysics is the genuine proof of the principle.

But, unable to enter on such an undertaking, I must none

the less endeavour to justify further our conclusion

about the Absolute.

There is but one Reality, and its being consists in

experience. In this one whole all appearances come

together, and in coming together they in various degrees

lose their distinctive natures. The essence of reality

lies in the union and agreement of existence and

content, and, on the other side, appearance

consists in the discrepancy between these two aspects.

And reality in the end belongs to nothing but the single

Real. For take anything, no matter what it is, which is

less than the Absolute, and the inner discrepancy at

once proclaims that what you have taken is appearance.

The alleged reality divides itself and falls apart into

two jarring factors. The "what" and the "that" are

plainly two sides which turn out not to be the same, and

this difference inherent in every finite fact entails