now PLURALISM IMPLIES UNITY. 357 



to be able to assert the reality of a unity which, on 

 its own showing, lies beyond all human thought and 

 feeling ! It would be a sufficient justification for 

 Pluralism that It protects us against such absurdities. 



§ 23. But Pluralism can do more than this : it 

 not only vindicates the actual plurality of things, 

 and explains how the unity implied in plurality may 

 be treated without dissolving all reality in an un- 

 meaning One, but it can assert unity in a higher 

 sense, which no Monism can reach. 



To assert the unity of the universe at present is 

 to assert what is either trivial or false. If by unity 

 is meant the abstract unity of the category of one- 

 ness, if unity means merely that in. thinking '' the 

 universe" we must from the nature of our thought 

 imply its oneness, or, again, if it means the possi- 

 bility of the interaction of the Many, the statement 

 is the most trivial and unimportant that can possibly 

 be made. If by unity is meant something incom- 

 patible with plurality, it is false. If, again, a real 

 tmity is meant, It is false ; for a real and complete 

 union of the elements of the world does not exist. 

 The interactions of things are not harmonious, they 

 are not at one but at war. 



But Pluralism can hold out to us a hope that such 

 a real union may yet be achieved. The Many, who 

 at present Interact discordantly, may come not only 

 to interact, but also to act together ; and their per- 

 fect and harmonious interaction would realize the 

 ideal of a true union, of a real unitedness, as far 

 superior to the imperfect union of our present 

 cosmos as the latter is to the abstract unity of the 

 underlying One. 



Thus, in a way, the One is Alpha and Omega : as 

 the basis of the Many, it is the lowest and least of 



