I And Thou

when things, from being our Thou, become our It, can
they be co-ordinated. The Thou knows no system of
co-ordination.
But now that we have come so far, it is necessary
to set down the other part of the basic truth, without
which this would be a useless fragment—namely, a
world that is ordered is not the world-order* There
are moments of silent depth in which you look on the
world-order folly present. Then in its very flight the
note will be heard; but the ordered world is its indis-
tinguishable score. These moments are immortal, and
most transitory of all; no content may be secured from
them, but their power invades creation and the know-
ledge of man, beams of their power stream into the
ordered world and dissolve it again and again. This
happens in the history both of the individual and of the
race.
To man the^ world is twofold, in accordance with his
twofold attitude.
He perceives what exists round about him—simply
things, and beings as things; and what happens round
about Trim—simply events, and actions as events; things
consisting of qualities, events of moments; things
entered in the graph of place, events in that of time;
things and events bounded by other things and events,
measured by them, comparable with them : he perceives
an ordered and detached world. It is to some extent
a reliable world, having density and duration. Its
organisation can be surveyed and brought out again
and again; gone over with closed eyes, and verified
with open eyes. It is always there, next to your skin,
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