Persistence of Existence 35 



I develop this idea further in the sequel. 

 This is, at any rate, what Professor Haeckel 

 was evidently groping after, as many others 

 have groped before him, and the nature of 

 this fundamental persistent entity or entities 

 (for we must not assume without proof that 

 there is only one : there may be several, 

 and at any rate their ultimate unification 

 may be a still further advanced and more 

 transcendental problem) may with some 

 appropriateness be called ' the problem of the 

 universe,' since it is clearly the problem of 

 existence. Professor Haeckel thinks he has 

 solved the problem, grasped the fundamental 

 reality, and found it to be matter and 

 energy and nothing else ; though why he 

 chooses to regard matter and energy as one 

 thing instead of two is not perfectly plain to 

 me, nor, I venture to say, is it really plain 

 to him. 



Making the assumption, then, that there is 

 something, or that there are several things, 

 to be discovered, which may thus have the 

 most fundamental property, viz., persistent 



