i8 BOOK OF THE DAMNED 



all things do merge, by Realness, I mean the Universal, besides 

 which there is nothing with which to merge. 



That, though the local might be universalized, it is not conceiv- 

 able that the universal can be localized: but that high approxima- 

 tions there may be, and that these approximate successes may be 

 translated out of Intermediateness into Realness quite as, in a 

 relative sense, the industrial world recruits itself by translating out 

 of unrealness, or out of the seemingly less real imaginings of in- 

 ventors, machines which seem, when set up in factories, to have 

 more of Realness than they had when only imagined. 



That all progress, if all progress is toward stability, organization, 

 harmony, consistency, or positiveness, is the attempt to become 

 real. 



So, then, in general metaphysical terms, our expression is that, like 

 a purgatory, all that is commonly called "existence," which we call 

 Intermediateness, is quasi-existence, neither real nor unreal, but 

 expression of attempt to become real, or to generate for or recruit 

 a real existence. 



Our acceptance is that Science, though usually thought of so 

 specifically, or in its own local terms, usually supposed to be a 

 prying into old bones, bugs, unsavory messes, is an expression of 

 this one spirit animating all Intermediateness: that, if Science could 

 absolutely exclude all data but its own present data, or that which 

 is assimilable with the present quasi-organization, it would be a 

 real system, with positively definite outlines it would be real. 



Its seeming approximation to consistency, stability, system 

 positiveness or realness is sustained by damning the irreconcilable 

 or the unassimilable 



All would be well. 



All would be heavenly - 



If the damned would only stay damned. 



