454 CONCLUSION. 



reality, occurs daily in the case of motion. In 

 theory the gradations between velocity i and ve- 

 locity o, i.e, rest, are infinite, and so bodies ought to 

 pass through them all before arriving at velocity o. 

 And as they are infinite, a body ought to require 

 an infinite Time in arriving at rest. But as a matter 

 of fact, nothing of the sort happens. The motion 

 gradually diminishes, and finally ceases entirely, at 

 least with respect to the body relatively to which it 

 exists.^ 



Hence we may rest assured that just as real 

 bodies can return to a state of rest in a finite time, 

 so the real world-process can attain in a finite time 

 to the perfect adjustment of Being, the eternity of 

 which delimits Time. 



§ 12. And with this defence of Eternal Being, 

 which the Becoming of the cosmos slowly evolves 

 out of the timeless Not- Being of acosmic apathy and 

 isolation, with this vision of a Heaven and a Peace 

 surpassing all imagination, which for ever obliterates 

 the last traces of the pre-cosmic discord of which 

 the struggle of life is but an attenuated survival, we 

 must close. And w^e may close with the assurance 

 that the truths of which we have caught a glimpse 

 do represent a real and complete answer to the 

 Riddle of the Sphinx, an answer which is rational 

 and capable of realization. We have thus achieved 

 the undertaking we proposed to ourselves (ch. v. 5^ 2), 

 and vindicated life and knowledge by showing that 

 after all it was possible so to manipulate our data 



^ The argument, of course, is vitiated by its use of infinity in a 

 false, mathematical sense {cp. ch. ix. § 4), and supposes that rest is 

 a reality {cp. ch. iii. § 8). But it does so only to accept the basis of 

 the objection it controverts ; for the whole difficulty arises out of 

 the mistaken application of the mathematical doctrine of infinity 

 to reality. 



