Is no objection against the general possibility. And

this possible absorption, we have seen, is also

necessary.

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CHAPTER XIX

THE THIS AND THE MINE

WE have seen that the forms of space and time supply no

good objection to the individuality of the Absolute. But

we have not yet faced a difficulty which perhaps may

prove more serious. There is the fact which is denoted

by the title of the present chapter. The particularity

of feeling, it may be contended, is an obstacle which

declines to be engulfed. The "this" and the "mine" are

undeniable; and upon our theory, it may be said, they

are both inexplicable.

The "this" and the "mine" are names which stand for

the immediacy of feeling, and each serves to call

attention to one side of that fact. There is no "mine"

which is not "this," nor any "this" which fails, in a

sense, to be "mine." The immediate fact must always come

as something felt in an experience, and an experience

always must be particular, and, in a sense, must be

"unique." But I shall not enter on all the problems

Implied in the last word. I am not going to inquire here

how we are able to transcend the "this-mine," for that

question will engage us hereafter (Chapter xxi.), and

the problem now before us is confined to a single point.

We are to assume that there does exist an indefinite

number of "this-mines," of immediate experiences of the

felt. And, assuming this fact, we are to ask if it is

compatible with our general view.

The difficulty of this inquiry arises in great part

from vagueness. The "this" and "mine" are taken

as both positive and negative. They are to possess a

singular reality, and they are to own in some sense an

exclusive character. And from this shifting basis a rash

conclusion is hastily drawn. But the singular reality,

after all, may not be single and self-existent. And the

exclusive character, perhaps, may be included and taken

up in the Whole. And it is these questions which we must

endeavour to clear up and discuss. I will begin with

what we have called the positive aspect.

The "this" and the "mine" express the immediate

character of feeling, and the appearance of this

character in a finite centre. Feeling may stand for a

psychical stage before relations have been developed, or

it may be used generally for an experience which is not

indirect (Chapters ix., xxvi., and xxvii.). At any time

all that we suffer, do, and are, forms one psychical

totality. It is experienced all together as a co-

existing mass, not perceived as parted and joined by

relations even of co-existence. It contains all

relations, and distinctions, and every ideal object that

at the moment exists in the soul. It contains them, not

specially as such and with exclusive stress on their

content as predicated, but directly as they are and as

they qualify the psychical "that." And again any part of

this co-existence, to which we attend, can be viewed

integrally as one feeling.

Now whatever is thus directly experienced--so far as

it is not taken otherwise--is "this" and "mine." And all

such presentation without doubt has peculiar reality.

One might even contend that logically to transcend it is

impossible, and that there is no rational way to a

plurality of "this-mines." But such a plurality we have

agreed for the present to assume. The "this," it is

however clear, brings a sense of superior reality, a

sense which is far from being wholly deceptive and

untrue. For all our knowledge, in the first place,

arises from the "this." It is the one source of

our experience, and every element of the world must

submit to pass through it. And the "this," secondly, has

a genuine feature of ultimate reality. With however

great imperfection and inconsistency it owns an