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. 



