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Page 1 of 11903 · PDF PAGE 14
…at our 0° existed, nor that it did not exist. The idea of existence ‘was just as much unformulated as that of toasted cheese. But0? is a finite expression, or has a finite phase, and our universe is a finite universe ; its categories are themselves finite, and the expression “infinite space” isa contradiction in terms. The idea of an-absolute and ofan infinite God, is relegated to the limbo of all similar idle and pernicious perversions of truth. Infinity remains, but only as a mathematical conception, as impossible in nature as the square root…
1903 · PDF PAGE 16
…ion! 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 t…
1903 · PDF PAGE 5
3) joss of Genesis to the intangible, but still self-contradictory spectre of to-day. But ifG be infinite, the other forces can have no possible effect on it. As Whewell says, in the strange accident by which he anticipates the metre of In Memoriam: “No force on earth, however great, can pull a chord, however fine, into a horizontal line that shall be absolutely straight.” The definition of God as infinite therefore denies man implicitly; while if he be finite, there is an end of the usual Christian reasons for worship, though I dare- say I cou…
1903 · PDF PAGE 4
…real: we cannot accept mystics of the type of Caird as being orthodox exponents of the religion of Christ. The Hindus enumerate Brahm, infinite in all dimen- sions and directions—indistinguishable from the Pleroma ‘of the Gnostics—and Maya, illusion. This is in a sense the antithesis of noumenon and phenomenon, noumenon being negated of all predicates until it becomes almost ex- tinguished in the Nichts under the title of the Alles. (of Max Muller on the metaphysical Nirvana in his Dhammapada, Introductory Essay.) ‘The Buddhists express no opin…
1903 · PDF PAGE 3
… category of the existent, enumerate among other things, whose consideration we may discard for the purposes of this argument, God, an infinite being ; man; Satan and his angels; man certainly, and Satan presumably, finite beings. These are not
1903 · PDF PAGE 13
…ess. Let us discover its value by a simple mathematical process! 0! P=0.4=9, Multiply by 1 =" Then > xGo0xe Now the multiplying of the infinitely great by the infinitely small results in SOME UNKNOWN FINITE NUMBER EXTENDED IN AN UNKNOWN NUMBER OF CATEGORIES. It happened, when this our Great Inversion took place, from the essence of all nothingness to finity extended in innumerable categories, that an incalculably vast system was produced. Merely
1903 · PDF PAGE 7
…el, B. D., * in his piteous and pitiful plaints against the logical results of the Advaitist School. But on his basal hypothesis of an infinite God; infinite space, time, and so on, no other conclusion is possible. Mr. Mansel is found in the impossible position of one who will neither give up his premisses nor dispute the validity of his logical processes, but who shrinks in horror from the inevitable conclusion ; he supposes there must be something. wrong somewhere, and concludes that the sole use of reason is to discover its own inferiority t…
1903 · PDF PAGE 10
…ct, I really claim to have re-discovered the long-lost and central Arcanum of those divine philosophers. Thave no serious objection to a finite god, or gods, distinet from men and things. In fact personally,I believe in them all, and admit them to possess inconcei- yable though not infinite power. The Buddhists admit the existence of Maha-Brahma, but his power and knowledge are limited and his age- long day must end. I find evidence every-where, even in our garbled and mutilated version of the Hebrew Scriptures, that Jehovah’s power was limited…
1903 · PDF PAGE 21
19 street) gives of the existence of the infinite. ‘“Think of a circle!" says he. ‘You will in a moment become conscious of an infinite circle around your original small one.” The fallacy is obvious. The big circle is not infinite at all, but is itself limited by the little one. But to take away the little circle, that is the method of the esoteric Christian or the mystic. But the process is never perfect, because however small the little circle becomes, its relation with the big circle is still finite. But even allowing for a moment that the A…