OF REALITY. 635 



called " the truly Eeal " — " is not many ; there are no 

 independent reals. The universe is one in this sense 

 that its differences exist harmoniously within one whole, 

 beyond which there is nothing, Hence the Absolute is, 

 so far, an individual and a system, but, if we stop here, 

 it remains but formal and abstract. Can we then, the 

 question is, say anything about the concrete nature of 

 the system ? Certainly, I think, this is possible. When 

 we ask as to the matter which fills up the empty out- 

 line, we can reply in one word, that this matter is Ex- 

 perience. And experience means something much the 

 same as given and present fact. We perceive, on 

 reflection, that to be real, or even barely to exist, must 

 be to fall within sentience. Sentient experience, in 

 short, is reality, and what is not this is not real. We 

 may say, in other words, that there is no being or fact 

 outside of that which is commonly called psychical 

 existence. . . . Find any piece of existence, take up 

 anything that any one could possibly call a fact, or could 

 in any sense assert to have been, and then judge if it 

 does not consist in sentient experience. ... I am driven 

 to the conclusion that for me experience is the same as 

 reality." ^ And further on he continues : " This is the 

 point on which I insist, and it is the very ground 

 ■on which I stand, when I urge that reality is sentient 

 experience. I mean that to be real is to be indissolubly 

 one thing with sentience. It is to be something which 

 comes as a feature and aspect within one whole of feel- 

 ing, something which, except as an integral element 

 of such sentience, has no meaning at all. And what 



^ 'Appearance and Reality,' p. 146. 



