KNOWLEDGE OF THE UNKNOWABLE 



we may yet yearn to know reality, and surely some 

 measure of knowledge may be attained by a study 

 of scientific truth. At least reality cannot be 

 inconsistent with its appearances. We must not 

 follow those whose laughter Solomon has described 

 as the &quot;crackling of thorns under a pot,&quot; and 

 fancy that the term unknowable excludes the 

 possibility of all knowledge. To assert the exist 

 ence of an unknowable is to assert some knowledge 

 of it. 



It is plain that though reality be, strictly speak 

 ing, unknowable, yet science, which deals with its 

 appearances, can yet infer from them somewhat of 

 its nature. If, for instance, science can prove, as 

 it has conclusively proved, that all phenomena are 

 inter-related, that in virtue of gravitation, for in 

 stance, I cannot push this table without affecting 

 the position of every atom in the universe through 

 out all coming time, or, as Mr. Francis Thompson 

 says, 



&quot;Thou canst not stir a flower 

 Without troubling of a star,&quot; 



then we may surely make the sublime inference 

 that there are not many realities, but one reality; 

 or, to adapt in the light of modern knowledge the 

 words of the Athanasian Creed, not many incom- 

 prehensibles, but one incomprehensible. The inter 

 relations of phenomena lead us to the assured in 

 ference that the noumenon is not many, but one. 

 We are compelled to believe that there is no con- 



