Page:Calcutta Review (1925) Vol. 16.djvu/251

236 of becoming conscious of themselves, and producing all the phenomena called mental. And all things must bė assumed to be real in themselves. No reason can be assigned for them, because they are above and prior to reason. Reason comes in at the end, not at the beginning. Reason is only an artifice discovered by finite minds for ameliorating their own condition; and that, though these minds themselves grew by a process in which there was no reason. Therefore Rationalism or Intellectualism which tries to explain everything by reason must be banished from philosophy, giving way to Irrationalism. (And yet, strangely enough, this very system is propagated at the present day under the name of Rationalism.) But what is—

The ultimate source of energy and change?—Hence the fundamental question of philosophy amounts to this: What is the ultimate source of Energy? Energy manifests itself in producing change. What is the nature of this power which produces changes, and makes the world to be a process of unceasing change? According to the realistic theory, change is self-existent in the form of motion, and no explanation can be given. According to the idealistic theory, it is the self-realising power of Idea that makes change. Which is right?

Appeal to the experience of the individual-self.—Still the idealistic theory that Ideas are self-realising powers, iş so contrary to the ordinary way of thinking about ideas, that it may appear altogether paradoxical. The best way of meeting this objection will be to consider whether the theory can be reconciled with our finite experiences of energy; or whether in the interpretation of our conscious experience, we have any evidence that ideas are the moving springs of our own active life. To find this, we must examine our own activity. It is manifested most clearly in what is called Volition, in which the Self concentrates its energy for the attainment of its ends. We have therefore to consider what elements