VIII. THE NATURE OF OBJECTIVE REALITY 7. General Characters of the World In Him we live and move and have our being. Take all in a word: the truth in God's breast BROWNING. There is an inmost center in us all, Binds it, and makes all error: and, to know, Supposed to be without. Watch narrowly And you trace back the effluence to its spring And source within us; where broods radiance vast, - BROWNING. Dark is the world to thee: thyself art the reason why; For is He not all but that which has power to feel 'I am I'? Speak to Him thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet. Our little systems have their day; -TENNYSON. They have their day and cease to be: And thou, O Lord, art more than they. Let knowledge grow from more to more, But vaster. -TENNYSON. THE WORLD A SPIRITUAL SYSTEM CHAPTER I THE NATURE OF METAPHYSICS 1. THE DEFINITION OF METAPHYSICS METAPHYSICS is the science of being. To understand this definition, which compresses a vast system of thought into a single, short sentence, we must unfold its meaning. There are many sciences which deal with limited areas or aspects of being, each special science investigating and systematizing the facts and laws of its own field. Thus astronomy studies the heavenly bodies, determining their sizes, distances, orbits, motions, weights, temperature, and composition, with a glance backward into their origin and forward into their destiny. At the other extreme, molecular physics studies molecules and atoms, endeavoring to measure these minute masses and to resolve the atoms into swarms of electrons and possibly to dissolve the electrons into ether whirls or centers of electricity or energy. In a similar way, botany studies plants, and zoölogy studies animals. Biology strikes deeper and enters the region of life as it is exhibited in both plants and animals. Psychology goes deeper still, and penetrates the world of mind as it is found in man, seeking accurately to ascertain and analyze mental facts and to derive their laws. Ethics studies the special field of mental life manifested in moral character and conduct. Theology studies God, seeking to discover the nature of his being and his relations to man, especially in the practical field of religion. Thus each of the hundred or more sciences investigates its own field. Yet while no science attempts to go outside its proper limits, all sciences overlap one another at their mutual boundaries, and are together interrelated and form one continuous and harmonious system of truth. Some of these sciences include several kindred fields or subordinate sciences. Thus physics investigates matter in the mass, whether the mass be an astronomical sun or a chemical atom. Biology studies life in all its myriad forms, and thus freely crosses the line between botany and zoology; it is concerned with the principles that are common to both these fields. Psychology, while it is primarily concerned with mental life, yet cannot keep from invading the body and studying the interrelations of the two widely distinct fields of mind and matter. Sociology, with its shadowy outlines and vague contents, endeavors to grasp a wide field of diverse facts embraced within economics, ethics, politics, sanitation, and other sciences, and is thus concerned with the structural elements of society and the principles that are common to these many subordinate sciences. Theology has an |