Union of various grades, union of diverse
types, union that stops at non-conductors, union that merely goes
from next to next, and means in many cases outer nextness only, and
not a more internal bond, union of concatenation, in short; all that
sort of thing seems to you a halfway stage of thought. The oneness
of things, superior to their manyness, you think must also be more
deeply true, must be the more real aspect of the world. The
pragmatic view, you are sure, gives us a universe imperfectly
rational. The real universe must form an unconditional unit of
being, something consolidated, with its parts co-implicated through
and through. Only then could we consider our estate completely
rational. There is no doubt whatever that this ultra-monistic way of
thinking means a great deal to many minds. "One Life, One Truth, one
Love, one Principle, One Good, One God"--I quote from a Christian
Science leaflet which the day's mail brings into my hands--beyond
doubt such a confession of faith has pragmatically an emotional
value, and beyond doubt the word 'one' contributes to the value
quite as much as the other words. But if we try to realize
INTELLECTUALLY what we can possibly MEAN by such a glut of oneness
we are thrown right back upon our pragmatistic determinations again.
Pages:
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132