54 THE WORLD-ENERGY 



It would seem worth while to note, however, that the 

 phenomenon, otherwise called appearance or manifesta- 

 tion, must at least be allowed " reality " as appearance, 

 and that thus it cannot be absolutely separated from 

 reality. Similarly also, the reality can only be known as 

 reality through its manifestation. And, since it is the 

 only " reality/' the manifestation so far from being some- 

 thing apart from reality, is simply the reality manifesting 

 itself. 



Indeed, Mr. Spencer himself declares that by no mental 

 effort is it possible to suppress the idea of absolute being, 

 that the unknowable, as absolute being, manifests itself, 

 and that this self -manifestation is in accordance with an 

 " established order." * And from this standpoint it would 

 seem that one ought to recognize the truth that all reality 

 exhibits or manifests just its own essential being precisely 

 in unfolding itself in phenomena. In other words, mani- 

 festation is not " something " apart from reality. It is 

 nothing unless the manifestation of reality. Whence it 

 would seem that the ultimate Reality or Absolute Being 

 can be rightly called the Unknowable only in a relative 

 sense; that is, in the sense that we can only progressively 

 learn all there is to know about it, that we can never 

 absolutely know it in the sense of having attained an 

 absolutely complete, exhaustive knowledge of it in all its 

 infinitely manifold details. 



The term noumenon has indeed already faded away into 

 what might very properly be styled a mere phenomenon. 

 It simply marked a confused phase of thought, which must 

 therefore prove a vanishing phase. 



*" First Principles' (N. Y. Ed.), pp. 117, 122, and elsewhere. 



