ch. iv.] PHENOMENON AND NOUMENON. 91 



is founded thereon. And before we can even begin with 

 this exposition, there remain to be discussed sundry pre- 

 liminary questions, which will occupy us through several 

 chapters. For the present it will be enough for us to carry 

 in mind, as the net result of the whole foregoing inquiry, 

 the conclusion that the doctrine of relativity, when fully 

 stated, affirms the objective existence of an Unknowable 

 Eeality, of which all phenomena whatever are the know- 

 able manifestations. 



"With the statement of this conclusion, our chapter pro- 

 perly ends. It is desirable, however, that, before proceeding 

 to consider the questions next in order, we should briefly 

 sum up the results at which we have already arrived. By 

 adding a little here and a little there, now a definite outline 

 and now a bit of shading, we have gradually produced a 

 rough sketch of a general theory of things. The inquiry 

 will proceed through future chapters, in the hope of slowly 

 converting this rough sketch into a more or less finished 

 picture ; but for the moment we may advantageously take a 

 step backward, and contemplate, in a single view, the main 

 characteristics of our work. 



At the outsat our philosophy was seen to be characterized 

 by the assertion that all knowledge is relative, — an assertion 

 which carried with it the rejection of all ontological specula- 

 tion, whether metaphysical or theological, concerning the 

 nature of that which exists absolutely. But in thus 

 characterizing our philosophy we went but half-way toward 

 defining it. In order to know thoroughly what anything is, 

 we must also know what it is not. Few philosophers, since 

 the seventeenth century, have rejected the doctrine of 

 relativity. The footing upon which this doctrine stands 

 resembles too much the footing upon which rest the 

 demonstrated truths of physical science, to admit of its 

 being explicitly rejected, unless by those bold spirits who, 



