Every careful reader of the extract given above must see that the Absolute with which Mr. Spencer's argument is concerned is an Absolute in consciousness. It is "an indefinite consciousness," "raw material of consciousness," an "indefinite thought," an "abstract of _all_ thoughts, ideas, or conceptions." It is the element of existence which is common to all these thoughts, ideas, or conceptions. If there could be any doubt as to the nature of this Absolute in which the argument results, it should be set at rest by the very emphatic statement that "our consciousness of the unconditioned" is "literally the unconditioned consciousness, or raw material of thought to which in thinking we give definite forms." It is this "undifferentiated substance of consciousness which is conditional anew in every thought" that remains with us as an Absolute through all forms of the conditioned. Now this Absolute, the element of existence which accompanies all other elements in consciousness, is the only one with which the argument has at all concerned itself, and yet this is evidently not the Absolute in which the author is chiefly interested. There can be no good reason for calling this Absolute either Unknowable, Incomprehensible, or Inscrutable. It is not a "Power" for it is simply the element of existence, nor is it a "Reality," for the "abstract of _all_ thoughts, ideas, or conceptions" must be common to the unreal or imaginary as well as to the real. It is (mental) existence pure and simple. If the argument be good, this element is known completely and just as it is; indefinitely, it is true, but then it is indefinite, and if known definitely would not be known as it is. There is nothing farther about it to know. It is in no sense Unknowable. If the objection be to the use of the word "know" where the knowledge is indefinite, we should invent some word to apply to an indefinite consciousness; but such consciousness, if denied to be knowledge, should not be classed with ignorance. Moreover, as knowledge is of all degrees of definiteness, we should need a series of words to express the gradations. The series would be a long one.