14 THE WORLD-ENERGY 



is thus the universal form of all succession,, as space is 

 the universal form of all physical co-existence. 



Transition, in short, is change a going over from one 

 state to anothe*. But this takes place both in the inner 

 consciousness and also in the outer sensuous object of 

 consciousness. Thus it becomes evident that time, as the 

 universal form of all change,, both inner and outer, is also 

 both subjective and objective. 



Like space, too, time is, merely as time, an abstraction 

 pure and simple. Just as we could never become con- 

 scious of space, save through the perception of objects in 

 co-existence, so we could never become conscious of time, 

 save through the perception of events occurring in suc- 

 cession. And just as space would be meaningless save as 

 a relation of object to object, so time would be devoid of 

 meaning save as a relation of event to event. Both are 

 purely negative factors, and yet, with their utter lack of 

 all positive characteristics^ they are precisely the factors 

 in our perceptions of objects and changes in those objects 

 which we find it absolutely impossible to eliminate from 

 our perceptions. 



Neither space nor time can be perceived by the senses, 

 and yet it is alone through our perceptions that we 

 become aware of space and time. They are not objects of 

 special perception, and this they could not be, for they 

 are the universal forms of all possible perceptions. It is 

 this fact that lifts the conceptions of space and time com- 

 pletely out of the domain of merely empirical knowledge. 



The proposition, " Every force is a form of electricity," 

 is an empirical proposition which has been more or less 

 definitely affirmed at different times within the present 

 century, in spite of the somewhat arbitrary and exclusive 



