Herbert Spencer^s SyntTietic Philosophy. 103 



there is something beyond consciousness that exists per se, 

 and that, as such, it is unknown. The statement that knowl- 

 edge is relative involves the statement that there is absolute 

 existence — existence that does not depend upon our con- 

 sciousness, and of which we know only its effects upon us. 

 If, in asserting the relativity of knowledge, we do not postu- 

 late absolute existence, the relative itself becomes absolute ; 

 and that involves a contradiction of the doctrine of rela- 

 tivity — the very indisputable doctrine by which the so-called 

 qualities of matter are shown to be sensible phenomena. 



An oyster is conceived as having some vague sort of con- 

 sciousness of its environment. In this consciousness man 

 is not included. If we conceive the oyster as a creature out 

 of whose consciousness we exist, is it not a trifle absurd to 

 say that there is no objective reality ; that our conception 

 of the oyster, instead of being the product of tlie co-opera- 

 tion of the mind with an external something, is only one 

 of the modifications of ourselves, uncaused by anything ex- 

 isting objectively ; and that, therefore, the oyster exists only 

 in our own minds? And other human beings than our- 

 selves can only be regarded as but so many modifications of 

 our own consciousness. The truth is that, while we know- 

 directly only our own conscious states — the material out of 

 which is woven all thought — we know by inference other 

 human beings, although, of course, relatively only; and 

 that which is not known is the reality which awakens in 

 us all similarly perceptive activity. 



The conviction " that human intelligence is incapable of 

 absolute knowledge," says Spencer, " is one that has been 

 slowly gaining ground as civilization has advanced. . . . All 

 possible conceptions have been, one by one, tried and found 

 wanting ; and so the entire field of speculation has been 

 gradually exhausted without positive result, the only one 

 arrived at being the negative one above stated — that the 

 reality existing behind all appearances is, and must ever be, 

 unknown. To this conclusion almost every thinker of note 

 has subscribed. 'With the exception,' says Sir AVilliam 

 Hamilton, ' of a few late absolutist theorizers in Germany, 

 this is, perhaps, the truth of all others most harmoniously 

 re-echoed by every philosopher of every school.' " 



To Herbert Spencer belongs the great credit of having 

 formulated the principles of universal evolution and shown 

 that what von Baer demonstrated to be true in the develop- 

 ment of an animal is true of worlds, of all life, of society, 



