46 A. K. EOGEES I THE ABSOLUTE AS UNKNOWABLE. both alike, in their distinction, are equally necessary steps in the whole process. And in so far as it finds its explana- tion in the purpose of the universe as a system of interrelated lives, it still remains itself ; it has its relation to the eternal consciousness of God, not as losing itself in this, but as known to be itself and nothing else, and distinct from the wider knowledge of it which God possesses. There is, accordingly, no incompatibility between a knowledge of it which shall be adequate so far as it goes, and a wider knowledge of the conditions which make it possible, and of the purpose which explains it ; the latter, far from over- whelming it, implies its existence exactly as it is experienced. And while the larger purpose may be only imperfectly recog- nised by us, it yet represents no new or strange form of experience, but something whose relationship to the elements which enter into it we have exemplified every moment of our lives.
