IV 

 THE DOCTRINE OF ENERGY 1 



\ THE problem of Metaphysics the nature of Reality 

 still presses for a solution. Agnosticism is but 

 a cautious idealism a timid phenomenalism. That 

 philosophy, however named, which proclaims that 

 the experience of life is nothing more than a vain 

 show, a pantomime of sensations distinguished only 

 from ideas by their greater intensity and distinct- 

 ness, is not only a confession of failure. It is a 

 denial of fact. 



To know the nature of the Absolute as such, to 

 present the Absolute to finite minds as it must be 

 presented, if that be possible, to the Absolute 

 itself, must ever remain impossible to man. But 

 it is equally true that to attempt such a task has 

 never been the urgent mission of Philosophy. The 

 distinction between the Ideal and the Real, between 

 the conceptual and the perceptual, is quite cer- 

 tainly and incessantly recognised. Agnosticism can 



1 Originally printed in 1898, now revised and rewritten. 

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