MATTER AND "MIND-STUFF" 343 



once more we should have to accept Dr. McTaggart's 

 conclusion, and perhaps also regard this unity which 

 binds the units as fictitious as " the empty shadow 

 of our own mind's throwing," although in the im- 

 portance which it attaches to the self it stands as 

 the Ptolemaic conception of the Universe. 



There is a unity and plurality in all things, 

 and as we come to consider the nature of con- 

 sciousness we find that whatever plurality — our 

 personality — may involve, unity is the striking 

 feature of the phenomenon. However much we 

 may try to localise it, it is found to elude the 

 attempt ; and for that reason it has been regarded 

 by so many of the greatest thinkers as something 

 which transcends both space and time, and will 

 outlive them. 



We are not in a position to say that this view 

 is not correct, that such self-conscious units should 

 not outlive " the wreck of matter and the crush 

 of worlds." This is quite possible whether the 

 totality has also a self-conscious unifying principle 

 or not. 



In the earlier portion of this work, however, we 

 adduced physical reasons for the possibility that 

 some stable configuration of units of mind-stuff with 

 which consciousness seems to be associated may sur- 

 vive our ordinary mortal coil. But these too in time, 

 however long that time may be, will most probably 

 become disintegrated, and it is possible that con- 

 sciousness would become gradually dimmed and in 

 turn cease to be. 



