158 THE UNIVERSE 



ceptible and unknowable, he held they were none 

 the less a truth of the highest degree of certainty. 

 It is therefore well said that all who fear the down- 

 fall of religion as a result of the encroachments of 

 science or philosophy may thank Herbert Spencer 

 for placing it where neither science or philosophy 

 can touch it. 



Upon the law of relativity he places the basis of 

 that which can be known, and that which cannot be 

 known. He says: "We think in relations. This is 



truly the form of all thought On analyzing 



the process of thought we found that cognition of 

 the absolute the unknowable was impossible be- 

 cause it presents neither relations nor its elements 

 difference and likeness. Further we found that not 

 only intelligence but life itself consists in the estab- 

 lishment of internal relations in correspondence with 

 external relations. And lastly, it was shown by the 

 relativity of our thought we are eternally debarred 

 from knowing or conceiving absolute being, yet 

 that this relativity of our thought necessitates that 

 vague consciousness of Absolute Being which no 

 mental effort can suppress." 



It is apparent that these propositions contradict 

 eack other. For, if from the relativity of thought we 

 are eternally debarred from knowing or conceiving 

 Absolute Being, how is it that we have a vague 

 consciousness of this same Absolute Being which 

 cannot be suppressed ? Consciousness is one form of 

 knowledge. Spencer, thus recognizing the reality of 

 the unknowable, regards that which is or can be 

 known as different manifestations of the unknowable. 



These manifestations he claims, as they appear in 

 consciousness, pass through a double series. First, 



