Summary and Conclusion §184. At the close of a work like this, it is more than usually needfulto contemplate as a whole that which the successive chapters have presentedin parts. A coherent knowledge implies something more than the establishmentof connexions: we must not rest after seeing how each minor group of truthsfalls into its place within some major group, and how all the major groupsfit together. It is requisite that we should retire a space, and, lookingat the entire structure from a distance at which details are lost to view,observe its general character.
Something more than recapitulation -- something more even than an organizedre-statement, will come within the scope of the chapter. We shall find thatin their ensemble the general truths reached exhibit, under certain aspects,a oneness not hitherto observed.
There is, too, a special reason for noting how the various divisions andsubdivisions of the argument consolidate; namely, that the theory at largethereby obtains a final illustration. The reduction of the generalizationswhich have been set forth separately to a completely integrated state, exemplifiesonce more the process of Evolution, and strengthens still further the generalfabric of conclusions. §185. Here, indeed, we find ourselves brought round unexpectedlyto the truth with which we set out, and with which our re-survey must commence.
For this integrated form of knowledge is the form which, apart from the doctrineof Evolution, we decided to be the highest form.
When we inquired what constitutes Philosophy -- when we compared men'svarious conceptions of Philosophy, so that, eliminating the elements in whichthey differed, we might see in what they agreed; we found in them all thetacit implication that Philosophy is completely unified knowledge. Apartfrom each scheme of unified knowledge, and apart from proposed methods bywhich unification is to be effected, we traced in every case a belief thatunification is possible, and that the end of Philosophy is achievement ofit.
After reaching this conclusion we considered the data with which Philosophymust set out. Fundamental propositions, or propositions not deducible fromdeeper ones can be established only by showing the complete congruity ofall the results reached through the assumption of them; and, premising thatthey were simply assumed till thus established, we took as our data thosecomponents of our intelligence without which there cannot go on the mentalprocesses implied by philosophizing.
From the specification of these we passed to certain primary truths --"The Indestructibility of Matter," "The Continuity of Motion,"and "The Persistence of force;" of which the last is ultimate andthe others derivative. Having previously seen that our experiences of Matterand Motion are resolvable into experiences of force, we further saw the truthsthat Matter and Motion are unchangeable in quantity, to be implications ofthe truth that Force is unchangeable in quantity. This we concluded is thetruth by derivation from which all other truths are to be proved.
The first of the truths which presented itself to be so proved, is "ThePersistence of the relations among Forces." This, which is ordinarilycalled Uniformity of Law, we found to be a necessary implication of the truththat Force can neither arise out of nothing nor lapse into nothing.
The next deduction was that forces which seem to be lost are transformedinto their equivalents of other forces; or, conversely, that forces whichbecome manifest, do so by disappearance of pre-existing equivalent forces.
These truths we found illustrated by the motions of the heavenly bodies,by the changes going on over the Earth's surface, and by all organic andsuper-organic actions.
It was shown to be the same with the law that everything moves along theline of least resistance, or the line of greater traction, or their resultant.
Among movements of all orders, from those of stars down to those of nervousdischarges and commercial currents, it was shown both that this is so, andtat, given the Persistence of Force, it must be so.
So, too, we saw it to be with "The Rhythm Of Motion." All motionalternates -- be it the motion of planets in their orbits or ethereal moleculesin their undulations be it the cadences of speech or the rises and fallsof prices; and, as before, it became manifest that Force being persistent,this perpetual reversal of Motion between limits is inevitable. §186. These truths holding of existences at large, were recognizedas of the kind required to constitute what we distinguish as Philosophy.
But, on considering them, we perceived that as they stand they do not forma Philosophy. and that a Philosophy cannot be formed by any number of suchtruths separately known. Each expresses the law of some one factor by whichphenomena, as we experience them, are produced; or, at most, expresses thelaw of co-operation of some two factors. But knowing what are the elementsof a process, is not knowing how these elements combine to effect it. Thatwhich alone can unify knowledge must be the law of co-operation of the factors-- a law expressing simultaneously the complex antecedents and the complexconsequents which any phenomenon as a whole presents.
A further inference was that Philosophy, as we understand it, must notunify the changes displayed in separate concrete phenomena only; and mustnot stop short with unifying the changes displayed in separate classes ofconcrete phenomena; but must unify the changes displayed in all concretephenomena. If the law of operation of each factor holds true throughout theCosmos, so, too, must the law of their co-operation. And hence in comprehendingthe Cosmos as conforming to this law of co-operation, must consist that highestunification which Philosophy seeks.
