Insisted that, none the less, ideal identity between

souls is a genuine fact. We found, last of all, that, in

the psychical life of the individual, we had to

recognise the active working of sameness. And we ended

this chapter with the reflection which throughout has

been near us. We have here been handling problems, the

complete solution of which would involve the destruction

of both body and soul. We have found ourselves naturally

carried forward to the consideration of that which is

beyond them.

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

CHAPTER XXIV

DEGREES OF TRUTH AND REALITY

IN our last chapter we reached the question of degrees

in Truth and Reality, and we must now endeavour to make

clear what is contained in that idea. An attempt to do

this, thoroughly and in detail, would carry us too far.

To show how the world, physical and spiritual, realizes

by various stages and degrees the one absolute

principle, would involve a system of metaphysics. And

such a system I am not undertaking to construct. I am

endeavouring merely to get a sound general view of

Reality, and to defend it against a number of

difficulties and objections. But, for this, it is

essential to explain and to justify the predicates of

higher and lower. While dealing with this point, I shall

develope further the position which we have already

assigned to Thought (Chapters xv. and xvi.).

The Absolute, considered as such, has of course no

degrees; for it is perfect, and there can be no more or

less in perfection (Chapter xx.). Such predicates belong

to, and have a meaning only in the world of appearance.

We may be reminded, indeed, that the same absoluteness

seems also possessed by existence in time. For a thing

either may have a place there, or may have none, but it

cannot inhabit any interval between presence and

absence. This view would assume that existence in time

is Reality; and in practice, and for some purposes,

that is admissible. But, besides being false,

the assumption tends naturally to pass beyond itself.

For, if a thing may not exist less or more, it must

certainly more or less occupy existence. It may usurp

ground by its direct presence, but again, further, by

its influence and relative importance. Thus we should

find it difficult, in the end, to say exactly what we

understand by "having" existence. We should even find a

paradox in the assertion, that everything alike has

existence to precisely the same degree.

But here, in metaphysics, we have long ago passed

beyond this one-sided point of view. On one hand the

series of temporal facts has been perceived to consist

in ideal construction. It is ideal, not indeed wholly

(Chapter xxiii.), but still essentially. And such a

series is but appearance; it is not absolute, but

relative; and, like all other appearance, it admits the

distinction of more and less. On the other hand, we have

seen that truth, which again itself is appearance, both

unconsciously and deliberately diverges from this rude

essay. And, without considering further the exploded

claim set up by temporal fact, we may deal generally

with the question of degrees in reality and truth.

We have already perceived the main nature of the

process of thinking. Thought essentially consists in the

separation of the "what" from the "that." It may be said

to accept this dissolution as its effective principle.

Thus it renounces all attempt to make fact, and it

confines itself to content. But by embracing this

separation, and by urging this independent development

to its extreme, thought indirectly endeavours to restore

the broken whole. It seeks to find an arrangement of