172 COSMIC I'll I LOSOPHY. [pt. l 



this is a mistake. The use of the word "momentum" shows 

 how we are compelled to conci Lve the event as a manifi 

 tion of force. We may abolish the figment of a specific 

 occulta, vis ; but, strive as we will, we cannot mentally 

 represent the event otherwise than as a differential result oi 

 the excess of one quantum of force over another quantum 

 of force. And what do we mean by force ? Our conception 

 of force is nothing but a generalized abstraction from our 

 sensations of muscular resistance. That such a conception 

 is merely symbolic, that it does not truly represent the real 

 force objectively existing, I have already shown. Neverthe- 

 less, from the relativity of our thought, such is the only con- 

 ception which we can frame. Therefore, I repeat, from first 

 to last, whether we give a theological, a metaphysical, or a 

 scientific explanation of any phenomenon, we alike interpret 

 it in terms of consciousness. Whether we frame the crude 

 conception of an arbitrary volition, or the refined conception 

 of a uniformly conditioned force, we must equally admit that 

 our subjective feelings are the only materials with which 

 the conception can be framed. The consciousness of force 

 remains dominant from first to last, and can be abolished 

 only by abolishing consciousness itself. 



But now, in the second place, this final scientific conception 

 of a uniformly conditioned force cannot even be framed save 

 by postulating an unconditioned Power existing independently 

 of consciousness, to which no limit is conceivable in time or 

 space, and of which all phenomena, as known to us, are the 

 manifestations. It was demonstrated above, in the fourth 

 chapter, that without postulating such an Absolute Existence, 

 we can frame no theory whatever, either of external or of 

 internal phenomena, even our proof of the relativity of 

 knowledge immediately becoming nonsense in such case. It 

 was shown that the existence of such a Power independent 

 of us is an element involved in our consciousness of our 

 own existence — is, in short, the " obverse of our self-con- 



