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Issue. Of those who take their principle of

understanding from the self, how few subject that

principle to an impartial scrutiny. But it is easy to

argue from a foregone alternative, to disprove any

theory which loses sight of the self, and then to offer

what remains as the secret of the universe--whether what

remains is thinkable or is a complex which refuses to be

understood. And it is easy to survey the world which is

selfless, to find there vanity and illusion, and then to

return to one's self into congenial darkness and the

equivocal consolation of some psychological monster.

But, if the object is to understand, there can be only

one thing which we have to consider. It does not matter

from what source our principle is derived. It may be the

refutation of something else--it is no worse for that.

Or it may be a response emitted by some kind of internal

oracle, and it is no worse for that. But for metaphysics

a principle, if it is to stand at all, must stand

absolutely by itself. While wide enough to cover the

facts, it must be able to be thought without jarring

internally. It is this, to repeat it once more, on which

everything turns. The diversity and the unity must be

brought to the light, and the principle must be seen to

comprehend these. It must not carry us away into a maze

of relations, relations that lead to illusory terms, and

terms disappearing into endless relations. But the self

is so far from supplying such a principle, that it

seems, where not hiding itself in obscurity, a mere

bundle of discrepancies. Our search has conducted us

again not to reality but mere appearance.

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

CHAPTER XI

PHENOMENALISM

OUR attempts, so far, to reduce the world's diverse

contents to unity have ended in failure. Any sort of

group which we could find, whether a thing or a self,

proved unable to stand criticism. And, since it seems

that what appears must somewhere certainly be one, and

since this unity is not to be discovered in phenomena,

the reality threatens to migrate to another world than

ours. We have been driven near to the separation of

appearance and reality; we already perhaps contemplate

their localization in two different hemispheres--the one

unknown to us and real, and the other known and mere

appearance. But, before we take this step, I will say a

few words on a proposed alternative, stating this

entirely in my own way and so as to suit my own

convenience.

"Why," it may be said, "should we trouble ourselves

to seek for a unity? Why do things not go on very well

as they are? We really want no substance or activity, or

anything else of the kind. For phenomena and their laws

are all that science requires." Such a view maybe called

Phenomenalism. It is superficial at its best, and it is

held of course with varying degrees of intelligence. In