14 The Evolution Hypothesis. 



the existence of the object as one be essential to 

 the unity aimed at, unification is impossible ; for 

 knowledge itself is impossible. Again, to know the 

 object of knowledge as one is incompetent owing to 

 the fundamental contrast between the ego and the 

 non-ego : unity is not complete until the subject and 

 object are reduced to identity. In the pursuit of the 

 unity of knowledge along the line of the unity of 

 the object known, we are driven to look for it in an 

 ultimate real oneness of the ego and non-ego : but the 

 identification is unthinkable ; it cannot arise in expe- 

 rience. The contrast between subject and object is 

 essential to thought. If I am no longer able to say, I 

 myself exist, I am no longer capable of conscious in- 

 tellection. Knowledge itself is impossible. 



(3.) Unity may be sought, not in the One eternal 

 and unchanged the absolute in being but in the 

 One eternally self-revealing, that is, in an absolute 

 process. In every attempt to reach unification of the 

 phenomenal through the absolute, whether in being 

 or in process, there is involved the implication that 

 the absolute is known. That a philosophy based on 

 knowledge of the absolute is impossible, has been, 

 once for all, demonstrated by Sir William Hamilton, 

 in his "Philosophy of the Unconditioned." Unifica- 

 tion based on such assumed knowledge is clearly 

 invalid. All search for unity by the way of the 

 absolute must fail ; for it involves acts of intelligence 

 that transcend the limits of thought. 



