ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 41 



contradiction to each other, when viewed in conjunction, as 

 attributes of one and the same Being? A Cause cannot, as 

 such, be absolute : the Absolute cannot, as such, be a cause. 

 The cause, as such, exists only in relation to its effect: the 

 cause is a cause of the effect; the effect is an effect of the 

 cause. On the other hand, the conception of the Absolute 

 implies a possible existence out of all relation. We attempt 

 to escape from this apparent contradiction, by introducing 

 the idea of succession in time. The Absolute exists first by 

 itself, and afterwards becomes a Cause. But here we are 

 checked by the third conception, that of the Infinite. How 

 can the Infinite become that which it was not from the first ? 

 If Causation is a possible mode of existence, that which ex- 

 ists without causing is not infinite; that which becomes a 

 cause has passed beyond its former limits." 



" Supposing the Absolute to become a cause, it will fol- 

 low that it operates by means of freewill and consciousness. 

 For a necessary cause cannot be conceived as absolute and 

 infinite. If necessitated by something beyond itself, it is 

 thereby limited by a superior power ; and if necessitated by 

 itself, it has in its own nature a necessary relation to its 

 effect. The act of causation must therefore be voluntary; 

 and volition is only possible in a conscious being. But con- 

 sciousness again is only conceivable as a relation. There 

 must be a conscious subject, and an object of which he is 

 conscious. The subject is a subject to the object; the ob- 

 ject is an object to the subject; and neither can exist by it- 

 self as the absolute. This difficulty, again, may be for the 

 moment evaded, by distinguishing between the absolute as 

 related to another and the absolute as related to itself. The 

 Absolute, it may be said, may possibly be conscious, pro- 

 vided it is only conscious of itself. But this alternative is, 

 in ultimate analysis, no less self -destructive than the other. 

 For the object of consciousness, whether a mode of the sub- 

 ject's existence or not, is either created in and by the act of 

 consciousness, or has an existence independent of it. In the 

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