第206章

Let no one suppose that any such implied degree of trustworthiness isalleged of the various minor propositions brought in illustration of thegeneral argument. Such an assumption would be so manifestly absurd, thatit seems scarcely needful to disclaim it. But the truth of the doctrine asa whole, is unaffected by errors in the details of its presentation. If itcan be shown that the Persistence of Force is not a datum of consciousness;or if it can be shown that the several laws of force above specified arenot corollaries from it; or if it can be shown that, given these laws, there-distribution of Matter and Motion does not necessarily proceed as described;then, indeed, it will be shown that the theory of Evolution has not the highwarrant claimed for it. But nothing short of this can invalidate the generalconclusions lived at. §193. If these conclusions be accepted -- if it be agreed that thephenomena going on everywhere are parts of the general process of Evolution,save where they are parts of the reverse process of Dissolution; then wemay infer that all phenomena receive their complete interpretation only whenrecognized as parts of these processes. Whence it follows that the limittowards which Knowledge advances can be reached only when the formulae ofthese processes are so applied as to yield interpretations of phenomena ingeneral. But this is an ideal which the real must ever fall short of.

For true though it may be that all phenomenal changes are direct or indirectresults of the persistence of force, the proof that they are such can neverbe more than partially given. Scientific progress is progress in that adjustmentof thought to things which we saw is going on, and must continue to go on,but which can never arrive at anything like perfection. Still, though Sciencecan never be reduced to this form, and though only at a far distant timecan it be brought anywhere near it, a good deal may even now be done in theway of approximation.

Of course, what may now be done cannot be done by any single individual.

No one can possess that encyclopaedic information required for rightly organizingeven the truths already established. Nevertheless, as all organization, beginningin faint and blurred outlines, is completed by successive modifications andadditions, advantage may accrue from an attempt, however rude, to reducethe facts now accumulated -- or rather certain classes of them -- to somethinglike co-ordination. Such must be the plea for the several volumes which areto succeed this; dealing with the respective divisions of what we distinguishedat the outset as Special Philosophy. §194. A few closing words must be said, conceding the general bearingsof the doctrines that are now to be further developed.

Though it is impossible to prevent misrepresentations, especially whenthe questions involved are of a kind that excite so much animus, yet to guardagainst them as far as may be, it will be well to make a succinct and emphaticrestatement of the Philosophico-Religious doctrine which pervades the foregoingpages.

Over and over again it has been shown in various ways, that the deepesttruths we can reach, are simply statements of the widest uniformities inour experiences of the relations of Matter, Motion, and Force; and that Matter,Motion, and Force are but symbols of the Unknown Reality. A Power of whichthe nature remains for ever inconceivable, and to which no limits in Timeor Space can be imagined, works in us certain effects. These effects havecertain likenesses of kind, the most general of which we class together underthe names of Matter, Motion, and Force; and between these effects there arelikenesses of connexion, the most constant of which we class as laws of thehighest certainty. Analysis reduces these several kinds of effect to onekind of effect; and these several kinds of uniformity to one kind of uniformity.

And the highest achievement of Science is the interpretation of all ordersof phenomena, as differently-conditioned manifestations of this one kindof effect, under differently-conditioned modes of this one kind of uniformity.

But when Science has done this, it has done nothing more than systematizeour experiences, and has in no degree extended the limits of our experiences.

We can say no more than before, whether the uniformities are as absolutelynecessary as they have become to our thought relatively necessary. The utmostpossibility for us is an interpretation of the process of things as it presentsitself to our limited consciousness; but how this process is related to theactual process we are unable to conceive, much less to know. Similarly, itmust be remembered that while the connexion between the phenomenal orderand the ontological order is for ever inscrutable; so is the connexion betweenthe conditioned forms of being and the unconditioned form of being for everinscrutable. The interpretation of all phenomena in terms of Matter, Motion,and Force, is nothing more than the reduction of our complex symbols of thought,to the simplest symbols; and when the equation has been brought to its lowestterms the symbols remain symbols still. Hence the reasonings contained inthe foregoing pages, afford no support to either of the antagonist hypothesesrespecting the ultimate nature of things. As before implied, their implicationsare no more materialistic than they are spiritualistic; and no more spiritualisticthan they are materialistic. The establishment of correlation and equivalencebetween the forces of the outer and the inner worlds, serves to assimilateeither to the other, according as we set out with one or other term. Buthe who rightly interprets the doctrine contained in this work, will see thatneither of these terms can be taken as ultimate. He will see that thoughthe relation of subject and object renders necessary to us these antitheticalconceptions of Spirit and Matter; the one is no less than the other to beregarded as but a sign of the Unknown Reality which underlies both.