258 MAN AND THE WORLD. 



The idea of infinity need not form part of an 

 intuition of Space different from ours, and after all, 

 that intuition is only subjective. Subjective not 

 only as existing in consciousness like the whole 

 world of phenomena (cp, \ 13), but subjective also 

 as being a peculiarity of thought unconfirmed by 

 feeling. There is nothing, therefore, impossible in 

 the suggestion that in the progress of Evolution the 

 infinity of Space should disappear either with or 

 before the intuition of Space itself It would thus 

 turn out to be nothing more than a transitory phase 

 or conditio7t of our 7ninds, accidental to our present 

 imperfect development, which would cease to lay 

 claim to ultimate reality when the upward struggle 

 of Evolution had raised us to a more harmonious 

 state of being. And indeed there would be nothing 

 inadmissible even in the idea of a non-spatial and 

 non-material existence as the goal of the develop- 

 ment of the spatial and material, if our examination 

 of the nature of the material should justify a doubt 

 of the permanence of Matter as a mode of our con- 

 sciousness (cp. §§ 17-32). 



Our attitude, therefore, towards Space will be 

 twofold : speaking as scientists and accepting the 

 phenomenal reality of Space and of the sensible 

 world for what it is worth, we shall distinguish 

 between otir idea of Space and real Space, deny 

 that real Space is infinite, and contend that the 

 sensible world is finite. But this scientific postulate 

 does not so much solve as carve through the meta- 

 physical perplexity. To metaphysicians, therefore, 

 the conflict between the conceptual and the sensible 

 will suggest their reconciliation in a non-spatial 

 " intelligible world." And with regard to this in- 

 telligible world, we must protest against two mis- 



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