METAPHYSICS 257 



ninety-nine people out of a hundred understand by the 

 term. 



" We need rehgious thought and theory ; a view of 

 the universe as vital and as the expression of a living 

 Power." ^ This may be thought acceptable in a way ; 

 but he soon tells us that in his view the " universe is 

 nothing else than the manifestation of a Living God ".^ 

 One notes the change of terms I have italicised. 



He starts to prove this by misusing the word " uni- 

 verse". "It implies unity, but to most people it is a 

 ' sum-total ' ".3 He thus omits the " — verse" while re- 

 taining the " uni — ". Prof. Skeat, however, says that the 

 word means " combined into a whole " ; and that is a 

 " sum-total" of innumerable differentiated units. 



" Faith in a universe obliges you to believe that there 

 is but one self-existing being. Call it God, call it Matter, 

 call it Mind . . . there is only One." * So, too, Haeckel 

 reduces everything to Matter and Force and calls them, 

 One Substance. 



To prove his theory Mr. Rix tells us to suppose a 

 number of independent realities, as souls. Souls are 

 finite, such as men, and if existent without bodies, will 

 still presumably be finite \ but the author suddenly 

 shifts his ground and adds : " If there are more than one, 

 they must in some sense or other be mutually exclusive ".^ 

 But this would be characteristic of "'infinite or self- 

 existent souls," not " souls " as we understand the term, 

 as signifying independent realities. 



He says, then, of " souls," " If they be in space they 

 are not independent, your beings are not self-existent ". 



If we assume them to be human souls — indeed, we 

 know of no other kind — the consciousness of one soul is 



^op.cit.,Y>.i^. -P. 58. 3 p. 33, 



^P. 36. 6 0/. «7., p. 38, 



17 



