Page:Philosophical Review Volume 2.djvu/535

521 separate individuals. But, if we are to preserve the exclusive individuality of things, we must attribute the changes they undergo to themselves. How, then, can we ascribe infinite power to a Being who in his self-centred individuality is as entirely impotent with regard to the changes of other self-centred individuals as they are with regard to one another and to Him? Either God does 'enter into process,' or there is a process which goes on in entire independence of him. Moreover, if God is thus beyond the process of the world, how can he be the only 'necessary' being? If all beings are in their existence absolutely individual, no other being can possibly affect their existence. The distinction, in short, between 'necessary' and 'contingent' existence is simply the illogical assumption of a relation between God and the world which yet is denied to exist.

These considerations seem to show that if God is conceived b as an exclusive self-centred individual, there is no real unity of existence, but merely an aggregate of independent beings, of whom God is one; that such a Being can be conscious only of himself, and must therefore be limited in knowledge; and that, having no relation to other beings, he cannot be the source of their reality, and must therefore be limited in power. An escape from these difficulties may be sought in either of two different ways: we may abandon the conception of exclusive individuality as inadequate, or, clinging to that conception, we may fall back upon the incomprehensibility of God. It is the latter method that Mr. Seth virtually adopts. The inner nature of God being unknown to us, why should he not be an exclusive individual, and yet include all existence within himself? though he is conscious only of himself, why should he not be conscious of other existences as well? though he is unrelated to other beings, why should he not be related to them in some unknown way? And no doubt these and any number of contradictions may be got rid of, if in reality, though not for our knowledge, contradictions meet together in peaceful unity. But the price we have to pay for this metaphysic of the contradictory is that we can have neither