124 THE DOCTRINE OF ENERGY 



in, and which is yet tor the individual dis- 

 tinguished, they cannot tell us how, from the whole 

 system of Nature. 



Of course, neither Thought nor Volition, as such, 

 can be the absolute Reality. They, like Physical 

 Force, are but transmutations, affections, phases 

 of Reality. Nor, again, is Energy, as a quality, 

 a correct description of the Absolute, as such. 

 The Absolute, as such, we cannot describe ; but in 

 studying, as Physics does, the relations of physical 

 phenomena and stating these in terms of Reality, 

 it conveniently gives Reality a name appropriate 

 to its own standpoint. 



Metaphysics rightly declines to be required to 

 study special branches of Science. Nothing but 

 grotesque absurdity ensues when this precaution 

 is overlooked. Yet Metaphysics has hitherto thought 

 itself the better of a little logic, and in the future 

 it will have to grasp the scientific conception of 

 Reality. There is nothing else for it ; and, after 

 all, it is remarkable how far the most fundamental 

 conceptions of Metaphysics are dependent on a 

 physical origin. 



Surely it is of primary importance to realise the 

 effect upon our conceptions of Space and Extension 

 of the doctrine of the transmutations of Energy. 

 Even the profoundest metaphysicians have seem- 



