90 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY, [pt. I. 



ference ; that is, the relation of difference as present in con- 

 sciousness is nothing more than a change in consciousness. 

 How, then, can it resemble, or be in any way akin to, its 

 source beyond consciousness ? Here are two colours which 

 we call unlike. As they exist objectively the two colours 

 are quite independent — there is nothing between them 

 answering to the change which results in us from contemplat- 

 ing first one and then the other. Apart from our consciousness 

 they are not linked as are the two feelings they produce in 

 us. Their relation as we think it, being nothing else than a 

 change of our state, cannot possibly be parallel to anything 

 between them, when they have both remained unchanged." 1 

 Since, therefore, the relations of Difference and No-dif- 

 ference, which lie at the bottom of our conceptions of unity 

 and plurality, are shown to be subjective relations which 

 cannot be predicated of objective existence, it follows that 

 in strictness the Absolute Existence of which phenomena are 

 the manifestations cannot be regarded as either single or 

 multiple. Nevertheless, as was hinted a moment ago, by the 

 very relativity of our thinking we must speak of it as either 

 the one or the other. From this dilemma there is no escape. 

 Yet, provided we recognize the purely symbolic character of 

 the language employed, we may speak of Absolute Existence 

 in the singular number; especially if we bear in mind that 

 by such a mode of expression we mean merely to indicate 

 that while the nature of That which is manifested in pheno- 

 mena proves to be inscrutable, " the order of its manifesta- 

 tions throughout all mental phenomena proves to be the same 

 as the order of its manifestations throughout all material 

 phenomena." 2 



Here we touch upon a point which cannot profitably bs 

 considered until after we have expounded the axiom of the 

 Persistence of Force and the Doctrine of Evolution which 



1 Spencer, Principles of Psychology, vol i. p. 224. 

 8 Spencer, op. cit. vol. i. p. 627. 



