OF REALITY. 495 



which carries in itself the ground of its being, and is 

 worthy to exist for its own sake, being not a mere 

 relation but a value in itself. 



This conception leads us at once into the centre of 

 Lotze's philosophy. In his earliest philosophical pub- 

 lication, the ' Metaphysik ' of the year 1841, he intro- 

 duces us at once to the great theme of which his later 

 writings treat in endless variations and illustrations : 

 the idea that the truly Eeal is that which has supreme 40. 



. Doctrine of 



worth, and that the whole scheme of existence possesses values. 

 reality only to the extent and in the degree that it is a 

 realisation of this supremely valuable content. From 

 the following passage of this early work the reader will at 

 once get a large glimpse of the region of ideas in which 

 Lotze's philosophy is moving. " This valuable and only 

 truly Real cannot be grasped through any finite form of 

 thought ; only the terms : the Eternal, the One, the In- 

 finite are suggestive and fluctuating enough to give it 

 for a moment defmiteness and objectivity. Out of this 

 it always again retires, through the loss of a definite 

 meaning, into the Void, the Immeasurable and Ineffable. 

 That supremely rich content is therefore only what the 

 mind means by it ; it possesses no fixity of thought by 

 which it exists outside of this meaning and by which it 

 could be severed from the silent consciousness of an 

 individual soul or by which it could be imparted to 

 others. Wherever this is to take place, appeal must be 

 made to the feelings, that they may create by a similar 

 mood a similar content. As therefore meaning and 

 opinion change, so also the essence of that inner world 

 will seem to change, which is nevertheless supposed to 



