Herbert Spencer's Synthetic Philosophy. 103 



there is something beyond consciousness that exists per se y 

 and that, as such, it is unknown. The statement that knowl- 

 edge is relative involves the statement that there is absolute 

 existence existence that does not depend upon our con- 

 sciousness, and of which we know only its effects upon us. 

 If, in asserting the relativity of knowledge, we do not postu- 

 late absolute existence, the relative itself becomes absolute ; 

 and that involves a contradiction of the doctrine of rela- 

 tivity the very indisputable doctrine by which the so-called 

 qualities of matter are shown to be sensible phenomena. 



An oyster is conceived as having some vague sort of con- 

 sciousness of its environment. In this consciousness man 

 is not included. If we conceive the oyster as a creature out 

 of whose consciousness we exist, is it not a trifle absurd to 

 say that there is no objective reality ; that our conception 

 of the oyster, instead of being the product of the co-opera- 

 tion of the mind with an external something, is only one 

 of the modifications of ourselves, uncaused by anything ex- 

 isting objectively ; and that, therefore, the oyster exists only 

 in our own minds? And other human beings than our- 

 selves can only be regarded as but so many modifications of 

 our own consciousness. The truth is that, while we know 

 directly only our own conscious states the material out of 

 which is woven all thought we know by inference other 

 human beings, although, of course, relatively only; and 

 that which is not known is the reality which awakens in 

 us all similarly perceptive activity. 



The conviction " that human intelligence is incapable of 

 absolute knowledge," says Spencer, " is one that has been 

 slowly gaining ground as civilization has advanced. . . . All 

 possible conceptions have been, one by one, tried and found 

 wanting ; and so the entire field of speculation has been 

 gradually exhausted without positive result, the only one 

 arrived at being the negative one above stated that the 

 reality existing behind all appearances is, and must ever be, 

 unknown. To this conclusion almost every thinker of note 

 has subscribed. 'With the exception,' says Sir William 

 Hamilton, * of a few late absolutist theorizers in Germany, 

 this is, perhaps, the truth of all others most harmoniously 

 re-echoed by every philosopher of every school.' " 



To Herbert Spencer belongs the great credit of having 

 formulated the principles of universal evolution and shown 

 that what von Baer demonstrated to be true in the develop- 

 ment of an animal is true of worlds, of all life, of society, 



