122 THE DOCTRINE OF ENERGY 



has elapsed since Kant have not been altogether 

 in vain. The deeper thinkers are pretty nearly 

 agreed that the Absolute is not to be identified 

 with its appearances. How far they can bring 

 home this view in practical form to the intelligence 

 of man is another matter. Plato doubtless saw 

 the truth in a sort of beatific vision, but the tide 

 of speculation ebbed after his death, and its healing 

 waters never inundated the deserts of mediaeval 

 thought. The discursive weakness in which the 

 speculation of the transcendental Philosophy seems 

 to dissipate itself makes us fear a similar decline. 

 Metaphysics must receive the assistance of the 

 great speculative achievement of Physics. It 

 must realise that Science can postulate a Reality 

 unperceived and unqualified by the conditions of 

 sense, but in terms of which Science can explain 

 the whole phenomena of the sensible presentation 

 in their objective aspect, explain these as trans- 

 mutations of Reality, proceeding in accordance 

 with the general mathematical laws under which 

 Reality transmutes itself. 



It may be said that reason requires us to think 

 that the Universe is a unity. Where do you 

 embrace within Reality, in such a view of it, In- 

 telligence, Volition, Feeling ? We answer : Of 

 course, obviously Reality, as postulated by Physics, 



