COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



ties, to be reached by no equation. The thought 

 is necessarily and universally subject- object — 

 matter is necessarily, and to us universally, ob- 

 ject-subject. Thought is only called into exist- 

 ence under appropriate conditions ; and in the 

 objective stimulus, the object and subject are 

 merged, as acid and base are merged in the salt. 

 When I say that the sensation of light is a com- 

 pound of objective vibrations and retinal sus- 

 ceptibility, I use language which is intelligible 

 and serviceable for my purpose ; but I must 

 not imagine that the external object named vi- 

 bration is the Ding an sich, the pure object out 

 of all relation to sensibility ; nor that the retinal 

 susceptibility is pure subject, involving no vi- 

 bratory element. Kant himself would assure me 

 that the vibrations were as subjective as the sus- 

 ceptibility. Indeed, seeing that he denied alto- 

 gether the possibility of a knowledge of pure 

 object, the Ding an sich^ it was a violent strain 

 of logic to conclude that in thought he could 

 separate this unknowable object from the sub- 

 ject knowing it." ^ 



A violent strain of logic it was, no doubt. 

 After proving, almost to superfluity, that sub- 

 ject and object are inseparably united in each 

 act of cognition, and after triumphantly using 

 this fact against the ontologists who pretended 



^ Lewes, History of Philosophy, 3d edition, vol. ii. p. 



74 



