THE WORLD A ST/^£SS BETWEEN GOD AND SPIRITS. 279 



world appears. But that it should appear to us 

 implies a certain independence and distinction from 

 the Deity. For Force implies resistance, and there 

 would be nothing for the divine Force to act upon, 

 if we were not distinct and resisting entities. Or 

 rather, we should remember that the conception of 

 Force is imperfect, if we regard only the force 

 which acts, and not that which it acts upon, and 

 which calls it out by its resistance, that every action 

 implies reaction, and that to speak of forces is but a 

 convenient but inaccurate way of speaking of a Stress 

 or Inter-action between two> factors. And of these 

 factors each must be real in order to make pos- 

 sible the existence of the force exercised by either. 

 When, therefore, we call the universe a manifestation 

 of divine Force, we are not speaking with perfect 

 precision, but leaving out of account the other half 

 of the Stress, viz., the Reaction of the Ego upon 

 that force. The cosmos of our experience is a 

 stress or inter-action between God and ourselves. 



And in such interaction both sides are affected. 

 K God appears to us as the world, if the splendour 

 of -perfection can be thus distorted in the dross of 

 the naterial, the Self also, which is a factor in that 

 interacion, cannot appear in its fulness. 



We n^ist distinguish therefore between the Self 

 as it ultiriately is, and as it appears to itself in its 

 interaction with the Deity. This distinction may 

 be marked .y calling the Self as it appears, the 

 phenomenal setf^ and the self as the ultimate reality, 

 the Ti-anscende^tal Ego. By the latter name it is 

 intended to exp^ss its transcendence of the limit- 

 ations of our ordin>ry consciousness and of our phen- 

 omenal world, and o^ ^o emphasize its fundamental 

 kinship with our nomal self. And in agreement 



