260 THE WOKLD-ENERGY 



is absolutely nothing. Out of so-called inanimate nature 

 doubtless life does constantly arise. But this must ever 

 presuppose the World-Energy as the total divine Life- 

 Process which gives itself outer manifestation through all 

 the forms of nature. Doubtless spontaneous generation 

 does perpetually take place in the sense that everywhere 

 through all the universe the mechanical and chemical 

 relations of energy in the physical aspect of existence 

 grade insensibly into, and in their higher ranges of com- 

 plexity constitute, the relations of energy which are 

 known under the name of physical life. 



But this conception of life coming from the not-living 

 must forever remain infinitely self-contradictory, unless 

 it is explicitly recognized that physical force, as such, is 

 absolutely unthinkable otherwise than as the external 

 mode of the internal, spontaneous World-Energy which 

 constitutes the truth of all reality, and which, in its 

 highest aspect, is the one absolute, divine Spirit.* We 

 cannot too often remind ourselves of the absolute unity 

 and continuity of the total world or universe in all its 

 modes. This is one fundamental aspect. The other and 

 complementary aspect is that of the infinite multiplicity 



*The beginner in philosophy is apt to stumble over the word " thinkable 1 ' 

 because he confounds thinking with imagining. In reality one can think only 

 the consistent, the rational. He can imagine any monstrosity. One can really 

 think only relations, and truly think only rational relations. To think ade- 

 quately is to think groups of relations as constituting totalities, and ulti- 

 mately, to think the universe as the absolute totality of all relations. Though 

 I must hasten to add, for the comfort of readers likely to be sh6cked by such 

 expressions, that by the phrase: "to think the universe," I mean no more 

 than this: To so far pursue in thought the nature of relation as to recognize 

 the necessity of all relations being comprised in a Totality which is organic 

 in its very constitution a Totality which is active and whose activity is in 

 accordance with an " established order." This, I must also add, may be, and 

 is, done in degrees of adequacy widely different. Need it be still further 

 added that the genuine thinker will be constantly advancing to greater 

 degrees of adequacy in his estimate of this Totality? 



