Page:Philosophical Review Volume 27.djvu/666

654 man is but a compound of physical matter and physical force. It is the real self, of which the empirical was the substratum, upon which I tighten my hold. I do not assert immortality, since immortality, like creation, is a bridge between the phenomenal and spiritual levels. Creation is the bridge at the beginning; immortality the bridge at the end. Were I able to build the bridge, I should know. I do not affirm immortality. I affirm the real and irreducible existence of the essential self. Or rather, as my last act, I affirm that the ideal of perfection which my mind inevitably conceives has its counterpart in the ultimate reality of things, is the truest reading of that reality whereof man is capable. I turn away from the thought of the self, even the essential self, as if that could be my chief concern, toward the vaster infinite whole in which the self is integrally preserved. I affirm that there verily is an eternal divine life, a best beyond the best I can think or imagine, in which all that is best in me, and best in those who are dear to me, is contained and continued. In this sense ''I bless the universe. And to be able to bless the universe in one's last moments is the supreme prize which man can wrest from Life's struggles, life's experience''" (pp. 359-60). The worthwhileness of a human being can be made good only by the assurance that all that is best in him will somehow survive.

Es kann die Spur von seinen Erdentagen Nicht in Aeonen untergehen.

There is another phase in our author's teaching that deserves attention. We have seen that he attributes worth to the personality, the unique, irreducible, substantive entity in man. In developing his theory, however, he introduces uniqueness of another kind, which he thinks differentiates his system from other idealistic philosophies. He expands his thought in the following formulas: "Act as a member of the ethical manifold (the infinite spiritual universe). Act so as to achieve uniqueness (complete individualization—the most completely individualized act is the most ethical). Act so as to elicit in another the distinctive, unique quality characteristic of him as a fellow-member of the infinite whole" (p. 117). Now "the actual unique quality in myself is incognizable, and only appears, so far as it does appear, in the effect produced by myself upon my fellows. Hence, to advance towards uniqueness I must project dynamically my most distinctive energy upon my fellow-members" (p. 118). "I must seek to elicit the consciousness of the uniqueness and the interrelation in others. I must help others in order to save myself; I must look upon the other as an ethical unit or moral being in order to become a moral being