Welsh Journals

to-day, the passing of the control of affairs to a government urged to extremes by Clydesdale? Though I am far from sharing their supposed political views, one must recognise that the South Wales miners have, as a body, shown in the past a devoted patriotism, and that they contain a very large proportion of level-headed, fair-minded men among them. They are by no means all firebrands. The fiery element, in so far as there is one at all, is that of the youth just beginning work, and the danger of his securing control of the political machine, or of a migratory populace doing so, could be met by limiting the franchise for the senate to the age of 25 and over, and to those who had acquired a permanent interest in the land by a residence of five years at least. The whole argument, further, makes an as- sumption for which there is no sufficient warrant, namely, that the Imperial party cleavage would necessarily be repeated in the politics of a Welsh senate, and that the present cleavage of Imperial THE STRUCTURE OF REALITY By D. Miall Edwards, M.A., Ph.D., D.D. I. ABOUT two years ago I had the privilege of reviewing at considerable length in the "Welsh Outlook" (January, 1926) a book entitled "The Non-Rational Character of Faith," by Dr. E. E. Thomas, then Vicar of Dolfor. Though I had occasion to differ profoundly from the author's conclusions, I rejoiced to be able to pay sincere tribute to the ability and philosophical subtlety of his book. I am now asked to review a bigger and more important contribution by the same author. This new book is undoubtedly an able and original piece of philosophic thinking. It is not a book for the "general reader." It is strenuously and severely metaphysical, though written in good literary style, without any of the stodginess which characterises many philosophical works. In this article I endeavour to summarise the argument (though this is no easy task, where the reasoning is so closely knit). Next month I shall offer certain criticisms. The main thesis of the book is that souls are more fundamental than principles in the structure of Reality, that principles have indeed their source in the relationships that souls are able to estab- lish among themselves. Even mathematical and scientific principles have no objective existence in their own right, but exist only within minds. *"The Ethical Basis of Reality," by E. E. Thomas, M.A., D.Litt., Rector of Marchwiel (Longmans. Green and Co. 262 pp. ;1927; 10/6). parties is itself a permanent feature. No one can prophesy with certainty, but I can see nothing to indicate permanency in present party divisions; nor can 1 see that they would be reproduced in Wales, which in Welsh affairs would tend to cleavage on totally different lines. This then, it seems to me, is the course of action for Welsh Nationalists to adopt politically -to concentrate not on the creation of a new party, intent on refusing participation in Imperial affairs, but on the creation of organised opinion, independent of party, and bringing its influence to bear on political candidates of all shades to support a measure for the devolution of all purely Welsh affairs to a Welsh senate. As a final warn- ing, let it be again emphasised that that is not an end in itself, but a means to an end, the end being the application to Welsh life, through Welsh in- stitutions, of the principles that are inherent in Welsh political philosophy. Existence is not something standing by itself, but is a category of mind, a perfection given by mind to what presents itself to it under definite con- ditions. What are thought to be ultimate con- stituents of Reality, viz., "the persistent particles of mathematical physics," are really constructions made by perceiving minds. The psychological conditions of knowledge enter into the very structure of things known; such conditions usher every object into being and sustain it in being, and without them "the object would fall to pieces and become as nothing" (p 8). Every object must be of the nature of self if it is to have any being at all, and conscious feeling is the foundation of the very existence of the self. "All that lays claim to existence, even though it be the smallest dust- mote dancing in the rays of the sun, must possess some manner of selfhood (p. 17). This, of course, reminds us of Leibniz's teaching, and in general Dr. Thomas's position very nearly approx- imates to that of Leibniz, even though he occa- sionally criticises and rejects that great thinker's views. He quotes with approval Leibniz's famous dictum in his "Monadology" "Whence it ap- pears that in the smallest particle of matter there is a world of creatures, living beings, animals, entelechies, souls. Each portion of matter may be conceived as like a garden full of plants and like a pond full of fishes. But each branch of every plant, each member of every animal, each drop of its liquid parts is also some such garden or plants." Here is a world more palpitating with