210 THE WORLD-ENERGY 



The only possible real cause is one which is not itself 

 the effect of something external to itself. It must be 

 sufficient to itself, capable of acting from its own impulse. 

 It must be self-moving, self-realizing, and in this sense 

 self-cause. 



And yet care must still be taken to avoid narrowing 

 and distorting this view of cause. Cause thus conceived 

 evidently transcends time. Self -complete, it must be com- 

 pletely self-active. Kelated only to itself, it must receive 

 all its own activity. It is then completely self-receptive. 

 Infinitely active and infinitely passive or receptive of its 

 own act, it shows itself to be an eternal process, forever 

 realized in all its perfection. It is infinite cause and infi- 

 nite effect in absolute interfusion, and hence is the all- 

 inclusive, absolutely self-complete One. 



This may be rendered still more evident by a consider- 

 ation of the four phases of cause known since Aristotle's 

 time as the "Four Causes." It is intended here to state 

 their rational significance and relation rather than to 

 restate historical views concerning them. 



Material Cause is the matter, or substance, or essence 

 of which anything and all things are constituted. Noth- 

 ing can exist otherwise than as involving "matter" in the 

 sense of essence or substance. Hence in so far as the 

 existence of things is dependent on matter, matter must 

 be regarded as "cause." And yet matter as such is mere 

 blank, self-identical substance, characterless and formless. 

 It is mere passivity, bare potentiality. Nothing can arise 

 from it alone. Its potentiality can never be realized save 

 through some agency capable of differentiating it, 

 reducing it to form. 



Thus material cause proves to be but one of several 

 necessary phases of cause. 



