72 TWO THEORIES OF KNOWLEDGE 



joined is a mystery beyond the reach of Science, 

 and the man who can solve it is the man for whom 

 the world is waiting." 



Well, if that be so, then the world need not wait 

 any longer. The required explanation is offered 

 to metaphysics by the scientific work of the 

 physicians who built up and consolidated the 

 modern doctrine of Energy. It is true that 

 most of them have continued to postulate the 

 reality of material bodies. For their purpose 

 there was no real difficulty in doing so. What they 

 required was a datum of configuration, a pheno- 

 menal basis upon which their calculations could 

 proceed and in terms of which, as a point of origin, 

 their statement of transmutations was made. 

 The persistence of material bodies is a condition 

 precedent to the phenomenal manifestations in which 

 our Experience arises. Organic existence in every 

 form and the world in which it arises presuppose 

 the actuality of these. But dynamically they are 

 merely the phenomenal result of certain permanent 

 forces constantly in operation. To beings, if 

 there be such, inhabiting the Ether there is little 

 doubt but that a gravitation system like that of the 

 sun and its planets must present a corporate 

 rigidity and identity somewhat similar to that which 

 cohering masses present to our intelligence. But, 



