第55章

Obviously it corresponds to the division between object and Subject. Thisprofoundest distinction among manifestations of the Unknowable, we recognizeby grouping them into self and not-self. These faint manifestations, forminga continuous whole differing from the other in the quantity, quality, cohesion,and conditions of existence of its parts, we call the ego; and these vividmanifestations, bound together in relatively-immense masses, and having independentconditions of existence, we call the non-ego. Or rather, more truly -- eachorder of manifestations carries with it the irresistible implication of somepower that manifests itself; and by the words ego and non-ego respectively,we mean the power that manifests itself in the faint forms, and the powerthat manifests itself in the vivid forms.

This segregation of the manifestations and coalescence of them into twodistinct wholes, is in great part spontaneous, and precedes all deliberatejudgments; though it is endorsed by such judgments when they come to be made.

For the manifestations of each order have not simply that kind of union impliedby grouping them as belonging to the same class, but they have that muchmore intimate union implied by cohesion, Their cohesive union exhibits itselfbefore any acts of classing take place. So that, in truth, these two ordersof manifestations are substantially self-separated and self-consolidated.

The members of each, by clinging to one another and parting from their opposites,themselves form the united wholes known as object and subject. It is thisself-union of their members which gives to these wholes formed of them, theirindividualities as wholes, and that separateness from each other which transcendsjudgment; and judgment merely aids by assigning to their respective classes,such manifestations as have not distinctly united themselves with the restof their kind.

One further perpetually-repeated act of judgment there is, indeed, whichstrengthens this fundamental antithesis, and gives a vast extension to oneterm of it. We continually learn that while the conditions of occurrenceof faint manifestations are always to be found, the conditions of occurrenceof vivid manifestations are often not to be found. We also continually learnthat vivid manifestations which have no perceivable antecedents among thevivid manifestations, are like certain preceding ones which had perceivableantecedents among the vivid manifestations. Junction of these two experiencesproduces the irresistible belief that some vivid manifestations have conditionsof occurrence existing out of the current of vivid manifestations -- existingas potential vivid manifestations capable of becoming actual. And so we aremade conscious of an indefinitely-extended region of power or being, notmerely separate from the current of faint manifestations constituting thephenomenal ego, but lying beyond the current of vivid manifestations constitutingthe immediately-present portion of the phenomenal non-ego. §45. In a very imperfect way, passing over objections and omittingneedful explanations, I have thus indicated the nature and justificationof that fundamental belief which Philosophy requires as a datum. I might,indeed, safely have assumed this ultimate truth; which Common Sense asserts,which every step in Science takes for granted, and which no metaphysicianever for a moment succeeded in expelling from consciousness. But as all thatfollows proceeds upon this postulate, it seemed desirable briefly to showits warrant, with the view of shutting out criticisms which might else bemade. It seemed desirable to prove that this deepest cognition is neither,as the idealist asserts, an illusion, nor as the sceptic thinks, of doubtfulworth, nor as is held by the natural realist, an inexplicable intuition;but that it is a legitimate deliverance of consciousness elaborating itsmaterials after the laws of its normal action. While, in order of time, theestablishment of this distinction precedes all reasoning; and while, runningthrough our mental structure as it does, we are debarred from reasoning aboutit without taking for granted its existence; analysis nevertheless enablesus to justify the assertion of its existence, by showing that it is alsothe outcome of a primary classification based on accumulated likenesses andaccumulated differences. In other words -- Reasoning, which is itself buta formation of cohesions among manifestations, here strengthens, by the cohesionsit forms, the cohesions which it finds already existing.

Before proceeding a further preliminary is needed. The manifestationsof the Unknowable, separated into the two divisions of self and not-self,are re-divisible into certain most general forms, the reality of which Science,as well as Common Sense, from moment to moment assumes. In the chapter on"Ultimate Scientific Ideas," it was shown that we know nothingof these forms, considered t themselves. As, nevertheless, we must continueto use the words signifying them, it is needful to say what interpretationsare to be put on these words.