COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



anterior to Berkeley, and affirm, in language 

 savouring strongly of scholasticism, that beneath 

 the phenomena which we call subjective there is 

 an occult substratum Mind, and beneath the 

 phenomena which we call objective there is an 

 occult substratum Matter ? Our conclusion can- 

 not be stated in any such form, and we need 

 have no hesitation in acknowledging our debt 

 of gratitude to Berkeley for having swept phi- 

 losophy clean of such a rubbish of scholastic 

 terminology. Our conclusion is simply this, 

 that no theory of phenomena, external or in- 

 ternal, can be framed without postulating an 

 Absolute Existence of which phenomena are 

 the manifestations. And now let us carefully 

 note what follows. We cannot identify this 

 Absolute Existence with Mind, since what we 

 know as Mind is a series of phenomenal mani- 

 festations : it was the irrefragable part of Hume's 

 argument that, in the eye of science as in the 

 eye of common sense. Mind means not the oc- 

 cult reality but the group of phenomena which 

 we know as thoughts and feelings. Nor can we 

 identify this Absolute Existence with Matter, 

 since what we know as Matter is a series of phe- 

 nomenal manifestations ; it was the irrefragable 

 part of Berkeley's argument that, in the eye of 

 science as in the eye of common sense. Matter 

 means not the occult reality but the group of 

 phenomena which we know as extension, resist- 

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