114 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [ft. hi. 



whose extension we know no limit in space or time, we liave 

 found ourselves compelled to postulate an Absolute Eeality, — 

 a Something whose existence does not depend on the pre- 

 sence of a percipient mind, which existed before the genesis 

 of intelligence, and would continue to exist though all intelli- 

 gence were to vanish from the scene. "Without making such 

 a postulate, we concluded that it would be impossible to 

 frame any theory whatever, either of subjective or of objective 

 phenomena. Thus the theorem of the relativity of knowledge, 

 when fully expressed, asserts that there exists a Something, 

 of which all phenomena, as presented in consciousness, are 

 manifestations, but concerning which we can know nothing 

 save through its manifestations. 



Let us now take a step further, and turning to the con- 

 clusions reached in the first chapter of Part II., let il<» 

 inquire what is the Force of which we there asserted the per- 

 sistence ? " It is not," says Mr. Spencer, " the force we are 

 immediately conscious of in our own muscular efforts; for 

 this does not persist. As soon as an outstretched limb i? 

 relaxed, the sense of tension disappears. True, we assert 

 that in the stone thrown or in the weight lifted, is exhibited 

 the effect of this muscular tension ; and that the force which 

 has ceased to be present in our consciousness, exists else- 

 where. But it does not exist elsewhere under any form 

 cognizable by us. It was proved that though, on raising an 

 object from the ground, we are obliged to think of its down- 

 ward pull as equal and opposite to our upward pull; and 

 though it is impossible to represent these pulls as equal 

 without representing them as like in kind ; yet, since their 

 likeness in kind would imply in the object a sensation of 

 muscular tension, which cannot be ascribed to it, we are 

 compelled to admit that force as it exists out of our con- 

 sciousness, is not force as we know it. Hence the force of 

 which we assert persistence is that Absolute Force of which 

 we are indefini^^ely conscious as the necessary correlate of the 



