CHAPTER IX. 



MAN AND THE WORL\D, 



§ I. We are now in a position to attack the 

 "riddles of the Sphinx" themselves, which, as we 

 said at the outset (ch. i. § 3), concern the relation of 

 Man to the World which environs him, to his Cause 

 and to his Future. 



Of these questions we shall most fitly conimence 

 with the first, for, as will be shown, it leads on to 

 the others. 



By the environment of man we mean primarily his 

 material environment, the world of material things 

 in Space and Time, the existence of which presents 

 in abundance of perplexities to the philosophic 

 lind. In this question of the relation of man to 

 lis environment are involved the questions of the 

 existence of an external world, which has beerl 

 died the battle-ground of metaphysics — because 

 :he inconclusive skirmishes of unprofitable philo- 

 sophies have been largely conducted in a field in 

 ^hich neither side could gain anything but con- 

 fusion — of the nature of Matter and its relation to 

 Spirit, of the infinity of Space and Time, and gener- 

 illy of the characteristics of the Becoming of things. 

 Of these it will be convenient to consider first the 

 existence of the world in Space and Time. 



For if our environment is infinite in respect to 

 [Space and Time, all hope of a solution of the 



