EVOLUTION THE MASTER-KEY 



granted a moment s vision of things not as they 

 seem, but as they are. 



So, according to science, we know but shadows 

 or phenomena: the noumenon (Plato), reality-in- 

 itself (Kant), or substance (Spinoza) being forever 

 hidden from us. A correspondent has lately re 

 marked to me that agnosticism is in need of sani 

 tation and antisepsis ; but I submit this conclusion, 

 whether false or untrue, as at any rate reverent, 

 modest, and decent. 



In a subsequent chapter I shall attempt to show 

 that mind itself is, strictly speaking, as unknow 

 able as the reality which is manifested in not- 

 mind. 



Repudiating, then, alike the materialistic and 

 idealistic assertions as to the nature of reality, we 

 may pass on to the consideration of the answer- 

 in so far as it is an answer given by the synthetic 

 philosophy to the question of questions. 



