AND ITS SELF-CONSERVATION. 21 



of consciousness. But I find it absolutely impossible to 

 conceive of a consciousness that yet has no existence. 



It may indeed prove, in the sequel, that every phase of 

 existence implies intelligence or consciousness; but it is 

 manifest without further demonstration that every phase 

 of consciousness explicitly and of necessity involves exist- 

 ence. Thus it appears that consciousness is the wider, 

 richer term, and involves existence. And it may be that 

 perfect consciousness is precisely the highest term of exist- 

 ence, that it is just another name for self -existence. So 

 that existence not otherwise defined, is vastly the poorer, 

 more abstract, and hence subordinate term. 



Self-consciousness, then, appears to be the root from 

 which every branch of knowledge springs. If I turn 

 " experimentalist," and apply myself to the acquisition of 

 knowledge of external things, here too, as I have seen, 

 every step imperatively demands, absolutely cannot be 

 taken without, the reference of all to self. Every fact, 

 however simple or however complex, must inexorably be 

 tested by reference to laws which I find in my own con- 

 sciousness laws which I find it impossible to think of 

 as undergoing change. For change itself is meaningless, 

 save in so far as it is referred to the permanent, to the 

 changeless, as the standard of judgment. 



Nor will it avail here any better than elsewhere to take 

 refuge in the mists of " relativity." For the " relatively 

 permanent " must in the outcome ever prove to be some- 

 thing undergoing change. Such standard is therefore in 

 its very nature self-contradictory, since a changing stand- 

 ard can be in truth no standard at all. 



This truth is verified that is, empirically " proven" 

 in the ordinary affairs of life. In so far as standards of 



