CHAPTER VI. 



THE RELATION OF THE UNKNOWABLE TO 

 THE KNOW ABLE. 



"TTTHAT we know is, on Mr. Spencer's theory, bound 

 * * in an essential union, both in thought and reality, 

 with that which transcends knowledge. The union is 

 such that to take away the unknowable is to remove 

 the knowable also. The unknowable is as necessary 

 to thought as the knowable. "The connection, be- 

 tween the two being absolutely persistent in our 

 consciousness, is real in the same sense as the terms it 

 unites are real." * They co-exist in thought and co- 

 exist in reality. In every affirmation as to the 

 knowable there lies the implication that it stands in a 

 real relation to the unknowable. In every affirmation 

 as to the persistence of the knowable there is involved 

 the implication that it persists as related to the un- 

 knowable; in other words, that its relation to the 

 unknowable remains unaltered. The persistence of 

 the absolute in sameness of relation to the conditioned 

 is assumed. This regulative principle must, on Mr. 

 Spencer's hypothesis, be taken for granted at every 



* First Principles, 46. 



