2,28 MAN AND GOD. 



fore as illusory. It is only from our perverted 

 standpoint that the distinction of Good and Right 

 and Evil and Wrong and imperfection exists ; from 

 that of the Infinite, that which is, is what it ought 

 to be, and everything occupies just the position it 

 should. The '' God " of Pantheism is not only im- 

 potent to alleviate our sufferings — sufferings which 

 he himself inflicts upon himself — but he is actually 

 indifferent to them ; the physical and mental tortures 

 of myriad beings are actually seen to be " very 

 good" in the eyes of "God." And of this diabolical 

 indifference he can only be acquitted if we reflect 

 that it must evidently proceed from ignorance. For 

 God cannot be in any way aware of our woes, not 

 only because an infinite God cannot be in any way 

 conscious (§ 3), but because, from the standpoint of 

 the Infinite, our whole phenomenal world must be 

 nought, unfelt, uncared for, and unknown. Our 

 '' real " world is as relative as good and evil, and 

 like them would vanish sub specie cEtemitatis, For 

 the all-embracing Infinite admits of change as little 

 as it does of imperfection or of Time. It is all 

 things and has all things, and therefore no change 

 could add to or subtract from its substance. If, 

 therefore, change appears to exist, it must be an 

 illusion of our deluded sight, which does not pene- 

 trate to the Infinite. The world would be an inex- 

 plicable illusion, an unmeaning, incoherent pageant, 

 dreamt by the grotesque creatures of the Absolute's 

 unconscious dream, an unreal chase of shadows 

 across the dark background of the Absolute, a 

 phantasmagoria existing only in the fancy of the 

 phantoms that behold it. And so its fleeting 

 shadows would not affect the Absolute, nor it them : 

 not though we cry aloud shall we awake the sleep- 



