I
conceive of one inter-continuous nexus, in which and of which all seeming
things are only different expressions, but in which all things are localizations
of one attempt to break away and become real things, or to establish
entity or positive difference or final demarcation or unmodified independence--
or personality or soul, as it is called in human phenomena.
Our
general expression: That the state that is commonly and absurdly called
"existence," is a flow, or a current, or an attempt, from
negativeness to positiveness, and is intermediate to both.
By
positiveness we mean: Harmony, equilibrium, order, regularity, stability,
consistency, unity, realness, system, government, organization, liberty,
independence, soul, self, personality, entity, individuality, truth,
beauty, justice, perfection, definiteness-
That all that is called development, progress, or evolution is movement
toward, or attempt toward, this state for which, or for aspects of which,
there are so many names, all of which are summed up in the one word
"positiveness."
I
conceive of one inter-continuous nexus, which expresses itself in astronomic
phenomena, and chemic, biologic, psychic, sociologic: that it is everywhere
striving to localize positiveness: that to this attempt in various fields
of phenomena-which are only quasidifferent- we give different names.
We speak of the "system" of the planets, and not of their
"government": but in considering a store, for instance, and
its management, we see that the words are interchangeable. It used to
be customary to speak of chemic equilibrium, but not of social equilibrium:
that false demarcation has been broken down. We shall see that by all
these words we mean the same state. As every-day conveniences, or in
terms of common illusions, of course, they are not synonyms.
So
then: That all phenomena in our intermediate state, or quasi-state,
represent this one attempt to organize, stabilize, harmonize, individualize-or
to positivize, or to become real: That only to have seeming is to express
failure or intermediateness to final failure and final success; That
every attempt-that is observable-is defeated by Continuity, or by outside
forces - or by the excluded that are continuous with the included:
That our
whole 'existence" is an attempt by the relative to be the absolute,
or by the local to be the universal. In this book, my interest is in
this attempt as manifested in modern science: That it has attempted
to be real, true, final, complete, absolute: That, if the seeming of
being, here, in our quasi-state, is the product of exclusion that is
always false and arbitrary, if always are included and excluded continuous,
the whole seeming system, or entity, of modern science is only quasi-system,
or quasi-entity, wrought by the same false and arbitrary process as
that by which the still less positive system that preceded it, or the
theological system, wrought the illusion of its being. In this book,
I assemble some of the data that I think are of the falsely and arbitrarily
excluded.
The
data of the damned.
I
have gone into the outer darkness of scientific and philosophical transactions
and proceedings, ultra-respectable, but covered with the dust of disregard.
I have descended into journalism. I have come back with the quasi-souls
of lost data. [..]
We
substitute acceptance for belief.
Cells of an embryo take on different appearances in different eras.
The more firmly established, the more difficult to change.
That social organism is embryonic.
That firmly to believe is to impede development.
That only temporarily to accept is to facilitate.
But:
Except that we substitute acceptance for belief, our methods will be
the conventional methods; the means by which every belief has been formulated
and supported: or our methods will be the methods of theologians and
savages and scientists and children. Because, if all phenomena are continuous,
there can be no positively different methods. By the inconclusive means
and methods of cardinals and fortune tellers and evolutionists and peasants,
methods which must be inconclusive, if they relate always to the local,
and if there is nothing local to conclude, we shall write this book.
If it function as an expression of its era, it will prevail.
We
conceive of all "things" as occupying gradations. or steps
in series between positiveness and negativeness, or realness and unrealness:
that some seeming things are more nearly consistent, just, beautiful,
unified, individual, harmonious, stable-than others.
We are not realists. We are not idealists. We are intermediatists -that
nothing is real, but that nothing is unreal: that all phenomena are
approximations one way or the other between realness and unrealness.
So then:
That our whole quasi-existence is an intermediate stage between positiveness
and negativeness or realness and unrealness. Like purgatory, I think.
But in our summing up, which was very sketchily done, we omitted to
make clear that Realness is an aspect of the positive state. By Realness,
I mean that which does not merge away into something else, and that
which is not partly something else: that which is not a reaction to,
or an imitation of, something else. By a real hero, we mean one who
is not partly a coward, or whose actions and motives do not merge away
into cowardice. But, if in Continuity, all things do merge, by Realness,
I mean the Universal, besides which there is nothing with which to merge.
So,
then, in general metaphysical terms, our expression is that, like a
purgatory, all that is commonly called "existence," which
we call Intermediateness, is quasi-existence, neither real nor unreal,
but expression of attempt to become real, or to generate for or recruit
a real existence.
Our
acceptance is that Science, though usually thought of so specifically,
or in its own local terms, usually supposed to be a prying into old
bones, bugs, unsavory messes, is an expression of this one spirit animating
all Intermediateness: that, if Science could absolutely exclude all
data but its own present data, or that which is assimilable with the
present quasi-organization, it would be a real system, with positively
definite outlines-it would be real.
Its
seeming approximation to consistency, stability, system - positiveness
or realness-is sustained by damning the irreconcilable or the unassimilable-
All
would be well.
All would be heavenly-
If the damned would only stay damned.
