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That is exactly where the theory rears to heaven its
stoutest bastion! There is not, and could not be, any
cause. Had 0° been extended in causality, no change
could have taken place.
Here, then, are we, finite beings in a finite universe,
time, space, and causality themselves finite (inconceivable
as it may seem) with our individuality, and all the
illusions’; of the Advaitists, just as real as they practi-
cally are to our normal consciousness.
‘As Schopenhauer, following Buddha, points out,
suffering is a necessary condition of this existence. The
war of the contending forces as they grind themselves
down to the final resultant must cause endless agony.
We may be able to transform the categories of emotion
as certainly and easily as we now transform the categories
of force, so that in a few years Chicago may be importing
suffering in the raw state and turning it into tinned
salmon: but at present the reverse process is alone
practicable.
How, then, shall we escape? Can we expect the
entire universe to resolve itself back into the phase of 0°?
Surely not. In the first place, there is no reason why
the whole should do so; * is just as convertible as =.
But worse, the category of causality hes been formed,
and its inertia is sufficient to oppose a most serious
stumbling-block to so gigantic a process.
The task before us is consequently of a terrible
nature. It is easy to let things slide, to grin and bear
it in fact, until everything is merged in the ultimate