It means either the mere name One, the universe of discourse; or it
means the sum total of all the ascertainable particular conjunctions
and concatenations; or, finally, it means some one vehicle of
conjunction treated as all-inclusive, like one origin, one purpose,
or one knower. In point of fact it always means one KNOWER to those
who take it intellectually to-day. The one knower involves, they
think, the other forms of conjunction. His world must have all its
parts co-implicated in the one logical-aesthetical-teleological
unit-picture which is his eternal dream.
The character of the absolute knower's picture is however so
impossible for us to represent clearly, that we may fairly suppose
that the authority which absolute monism undoubtedly possesses, and
probably always will possess over some persons, draws its strength
far less from intellectual than from mystical grounds. To interpret
absolute monism worthily, be a mystic. Mystical states of mind in
every degree are shown by history, usually tho not always, to make
for the monistic view. This is no proper occasion to enter upon the
general subject of mysticism, but I will quote one mystical
pronouncement to show just what I mean. The paragon of all monistic
systems is the Vedanta philosophy of Hindostan, and the paragon of
Vedantist missionaries was the late Swami Vivekananda who visited
our shores some years ago.
Pages:
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133