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Ideas, inconsistent but useful--will they, on that

assumption, work better? If you, after all, are going to

use them solely for the interpretation of spatial

events, then, if they are absolute truth, that is

nothing to you. This absolute truth you must in any case

apply as a mere system of the conditions of the

occurrence of phenomena; and for that purpose anything,

which you apply, is the same, if it does the same work.

But I think the failure of natural science (so far as it

does fail) to maintain its own position, is not hard to

understand. It seems produced by more than one cause.

There is first a vague notion that absolute truth must

be pursued by every kind of special science. There is

Inability to perceive that, in such a science, something

less is all that we can use, and therefore all that we

should want. But this unfortunately is not all. For

metaphysics itself, by its interference with physical

science, has induced that to act, as it thinks, in self-

defence, and has led it, in so doing, to become

metaphysical. And this interference of metaphysics I

would admit and deplore, as the result and the parent of

most injurious misunderstanding. Not only have there

been efforts at construction which have led to no

positive result, but there have been attacks on the

sciences which have pushed into abuse a legitimate

function. For, as against natural science, the duty of

metaphysics is limited. So long as that science keeps

merely to the sphere of phenomena and the laws of their

occurrence, metaphysics has no right to a single word of

criticism. Criticism begins when what is relative--mere

ways of appearance--is, unconsciously or consciously,

offered as more. And I do not doubt that there are

doctrines, now made use of in science, which on

this ground invite metaphysical correction, and on which

it might here be instructive to dwell. But for want of

competence and want of space, and. more than all perhaps

from the fear of being misunderstood, I think it better

to pass on. There are further questions about Nature

more important by far for our general enquiry.

Is the extended world one, and, if so, in what sense?

We discussed, in Chapter xviii., the unity of time, and

it is needful to recall the conclusion we reached. We

agreed that all times have a unity in the Absolute, but,

when we asked if that unity itself must be temporal, our

answer was negative. We found that the many time-series

are not related in time. They do not make parts of one

series and whole of succession; but, on the contrary,

their interrelation and unity falls outside of time.

And, in the case of extension, the like considerations

produce a like result. The physical world is not one in

the sense of possessing a physical unity. There may be

any number of material worlds, not related in space, and

by consequence not exclusive of, and repellent to, each

other.

It appears, at first, as if all the extended was part

of one space. For all spaces, and, if so, all material

objects, seem spatially related. And such an

interrelation would, of course, make them members in one

extended whole. But this belief, when we reflect, begins

instantly to vanish. Nature in my dreams (for example)

possesses extension, and yet spatially it is not one

with my physical world. And in imagination and in

thought we have countless existences, material and

extended, which stand in no spatial connection with each

other or with the world which I perceive. And it is idle

to reply that these bodies and their arrangements are

unreal, unless we are sure of the sense which we give to

reality. For that these all exist is quite

clear; and, if they have not got extension, they are all

able, at least, to appear with it and to show it. Their

extension and their materiality is, in short, a palpable

fact, while, on the other hand, their several

arrangements are not interrelated in space. And, since