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FIRST CLASS OF OBJECTS FOR THE SUBJECT. 97
I that is, the reflection of our own Understanding, the exter-
I nalised image of its sole function ; and Matter is throughout
I pure Causality, its essence is Action in general. 1
This is
S why pure Matter cannot be perceived, but can only be
I thought : it is a something we add to every reality, as its
S basis, in thinking it. For pure Causality, mere action, with-
out any denned mode of action, cannot become perceptible,
||
S therefore it cannot come within any experience. Thus
| Matter is only the objective correlate to pure Understand-
I ing ; for it is Causality in general, and nothing else : just as
I the Understanding itself is direct knowledge of cause and
t effect, and nothing else. Now this again is precisely why
B the law of causality is not applicable to Matter itself : that
is to say, Matter has neither beginning nor end, but is and
remains permanent. For as, on the one hand, Causality is
the indispensable condition of all alternation in the acci
dents (forms and qualities) of Matter, i.e. of all passage in
and out of being ; but as, on the other hand, Matter is
viewed : it is un
pure Causality itself, as such, objectively
able to exercise its own power upon itself, just as the eye
can see everything but itself.
"
Substance
"
and Mattel
being moreover identical, we may call Substance, action
viewed in abstracto : Accidents, particular modes of action,
action in concreto. Now these are the results to which true,
i.e. transcendental, Idealism leads. In my chief work I have
shown that the thing in itself i.e. whatever, on the whole,
exists independently of our representation cannot be got
at by way of representation, but that, to reach it, we must
follow quite a different path, leading through the inside of
things, which lets us into the citadel, as it were, by
treachery.
But it would be downright chicanery, nothing else, to
1
Compare
"
Die Welt a. W. u. V." 2nd edition vol. i. sect. ; 4, p. 9 ;
and vol. ii. pp. 48, 49 (3rd edition, vol. i. p. 10; vol. ii. p. 52). English
translation, vol. i. pp. 9-10 j vol. ii. p. 218.
H