COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



inevitable conclusion, since we are able to carry- 

 on thinking at all, only under the relations of 

 Difference and No-difference. We cognize any 

 phenomenal object, as tree or mountain, only 

 through certain likenesses and unlikenesses 

 among our states of consciousness ; and only 

 through a revival of the same likenesses and un- 

 likenesses can we represent the same object in 

 memory or imagination. It may seem then that, 

 since we cannot attribute to the Absolute Real- 

 ity any relations of Difference, we must posi- 

 tively ascribe to if No-difference. Or, what is 

 the same thing, in refusing to predicate multi- 

 plicity of it, do we not virtually predicate of it 

 unity ? We do, simply because we cannot think 

 without so doing. Nevertheless, we must bear 

 in mind that the relations of Difference and No- 

 difference, under which we are compelled to do 

 all our thinking, are relations just as subjective 

 as any of the more complex relations of colour, 

 or resistance, or figure, which are built up out 

 of them ; and we cannot say that there exists, 

 independently of consciousness, anything an- 

 swering to what we know as Difference or as 

 No-difference. " This," to quote Mr. Spencer, 

 " is readily demonstrable. The sole elements, 

 and the indissoluble elements, of the relation 

 [of Difference] are these : a kind of feeling of 

 some kind ; a feeling coming next to it, which, 

 being distinguishable as another feeling, proves 

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