ITS METAPHYSICAL BASIS. 403 



must learn to discover the real root of the matter, 

 and discuss it in its logical and not in its historical 

 order. Hence it is necessary to supplement the 

 results of critical discussion of perplexities by a 

 systematic exposition, beginning with a statement 

 of the ultimate positive ground of the doctrine of 

 immortality. 



§ 14. The only absolutely secure basis either for 

 the assertion or for the denial of immortality must 

 be metaphysical. It is only the all-devouring One 

 of Monism which can make the permanent existence 

 of the Many impossible ; it is only the plurality of 

 ultimate existences which can ultimately make it 

 possible. The ultimate self-existence of spirits, the 

 doctrine that existences are many, spirits uncreated, 

 uncaused, that are and ever have been and can 

 never cease to be, is the only metaphysical ground 

 for asserting the immortality of the individual. And 

 this metaphysical ground' we have secured by the 

 preference given to Pluralism over Monism (ch. x. 

 §^ 21-23), and by our account of the Transcendental 

 Ego as the reconciliation of idealism and science and 

 as the explanation of the material world (ch. ix. 

 §§ 22, 24, 26-31). 



Now what is the bearing of our metaphysics on 

 the question before us ? It follows necessarily and 

 at once from the pluralistic answer given to the ulti- 

 mate question of ontology that the ultimate existences 

 are eternal and immortal, and this assertion also 

 applies to the Transcendental Egos that underlie 

 our phenomenal selves. In some sense, therefore 

 — to the extent to which we are to be identified 

 with ultimate existences and transcendental Egos — 

 it is absolutely certain that we are immortal. And 

 further, as the whole world-process is a process 



