194 THE WORLD-ENERGY 







tioii; but this is far from constituting the internal fact of 

 sensation. This internal fact of sensation is an act of the 

 mind. The stimulus leading to this act is found in the 

 outer vibrations; but the act of sensation, together with 

 its product, known as an "image/' these are inner, sub- 

 jective facts. Even the " image," involving all there is 

 of color, or of sound, or of odor, or of flavor, is not a 

 possession of the mind, as something separate or separa- 

 ble from the mind. Rather, it is itself a state of the 

 mind, a factor inwoven with the very existence of the 

 mind. 



That color, and sound, and odor, and flavor are 

 purely subjective is, indeed, a fact recognized and 

 acknowledged as a matter of course, even by the most 

 thorough-going empiricists. 



And now, all this being the case, it serves to suggest 

 the possibility that even that portion of the outer world 

 which we must still regard as quite external to and 

 independent of us, is still itself nothing else than the 

 outer manifestation of the inner, spontaneous energy 

 of a higher, and, indeed, highest, consciousness. This 

 would doubtless prove to be the most adequate term of 

 the world, a term infinitely concrete, the vital principle 

 of all things. 



But so far as the present argument extends, this 

 must as yet be regarded as conjectural. What has de- 

 veloped all along, what the most recent developments 

 of physical science point to with special clearness and 

 emphasis, is the conception that the world in space 

 is a sum-total of energy ; that everywhere there is 

 indestructible unity of relation ; that the total complex 

 of relations extends infinitely in all directions, and 



