God, things, the Absolute. (6) Finally, it has been held that
we can conceive the Absolute, though our conception is only
partial, just as our concepuon of all things is limited by
the imperfect powers of human intellect. Thus the Absolute
exists for us only in our thought of it (4 above). But
thought itself comes from the Absolute which, being itself
the pure thought of thoughts, separates from itself individual
minds. It is, therefore, perfectly natural that human thought,
being essentially homogeneous with the Absolute, should be
able by.the consideration of the universe to arrive at some
imperfect conception of the source from which all is derived.
The whole controversy is obscured by inevitable difficulties in
terminology. The fundamental problem is whether a thing which
is by hypothesis infinite can in any sense be defined, and if
it is not defined, whether it can be said to be cognized or
thought. It would appear to be almost an axiom that anything
which by hypothesis transcends the intellect (i.e. by including
subject and object, knowing and known) is ipso facto beyond the
limits of the knower. Only an Absolute can cognize an absolute.
ABSOLUTION (Lat. absolutio from absolvo, loosen, acquit),
a term used in civil and ecclesiastical law, denoting the
act of setting free or acquitting. In a criminal process it
signifies the acquittal of an accused person on the ground
that the evidence has either disproved or failed to prove the
charge brought against him. In this sense it is now little
used, except in Scottish law in the forms assoilzie and
absolvitor. The ecclesiastical use of the word is essentially
different from the civil. It refers not to an accusation,
but to sin actually committed (after baptism); and it denotes
the setting of the sinner free from the guilt of the sin, or
from its ecclesiastical penalty (excommunication), or from
both. The authority of the church or minister to pronounce
absolution is based on John xx. 23; Matt. xviii. 18; James v.
16, &c. In primitive times, when confession of sins was made
before the congregation, the absolution was deferred till
the penance was completed; and there is no record of the use
of any special formula. Men were also encouraged, e.g. by
Chrysostom, to confess their secret sins secretly to God. In
course of time changes grew up. (1) From the 3rd century onwards,
secret (auricular) confession before a bishop or priest was
practised. For various reasons it became more and more common,
until the fourth Lateran council (1215) ordered all Christians
of the Roman obedience to make a confession once a year at
least. In the Greek church also private confession has become
obligatory. (2) In primitive times the penitent was reconciled
by imposition of hands by the bishop with or without the clergy:
gradually the office was left to be discharged by priests,
and the outward action more and more disused. (3) It became
the custom to give the absolution to penitents immediately
after their confession and before the penance was performed.
(4) Until the Middle Ages the form of absolution after private
confession was of the nature of a prayer, such as ``May the
Lord absolve thee''; and this is still the practice of the Greek
church. But about the 13th century the Roman formula was
altered, and the council of Trent (1551) declared that the
``form'' and power of the sacrament of penance lay in the
words Ego te absolvo, &c., and that the accompanying prayers
are not essential to it. Of the three forms of absolution
in the Anglican Prayer Book, that in the Visitation of the
Sick (disused in the church of Ireland by decision of the
Synods of 1871 and 1877) runs ``I absolve thee,'' tracing
the authority so to act through the church up to Christ:
the form in the Communion Service is precative, while that
in Morning and Evening Prayer is indicative indeed, but so
general as not to imply anything like a judicial decree of
absolution. In the Lutheran church also the practice of
private confession survived the Reformation, together with
both the exhibitive (I forgive, &c.) and declaratory (I declare
and pronounce) forms of absolution. In granting absolution,
even after general confession, it is in some places still
the custom for the minister, where the numbers permit of
it, to lay his hands on the head of each penitent. (W. O. B.)
ABSOLUTISM, in aesthetics, a term applied to the theory
that beauty is an objective attribute of things, not merely
a subjective feeling of pleasure in him who perceives. It
follows that there is an absolute standard of the beautiful by
which all objects can be judged. The fact that, in practice,
the judgments even of connoisseurs are perpetually at variance,
and that the so-called criteria of one place or period are
more or less opposed to those of all others, is explained away
by the hypothesis that individuals are differently gifted in
respect of the capacity to appreciate. (See AESTHETICS.)
In political philosophy absolutism, as opposed to constitutional
government, is the despotic rule of a sovereign unrestrained by
laws and based directly upon force. In the strict sense such
governments are rare. but it is customary to apply the term to a
state at a relatively backward stage of constitutional development.
ABSORPTION OF LIGHT. The term ``absorption'' (from Lat.
absorbere) means literally ``sucking up'' or ``swallowing,'' and
thus a total incorporation in something, literally or figuratively;
it is technically used in animal physiology for the function of
certain vessels which suck up fluids; and in light and optics
absorption spectrum and absorption band are terms used in
the discussion of the transformation of rays in various media.
If a luminous body is surrounded by empty space, the light
which it emits suffers no loss of energy as it travels
outwards. The intensity of the light diminishes merely
because the total energy, though unaltered, is distributed
over a wider and wider surface as the rays diverge from the
source. To prove this, it will be sufficient to mention that
an exceedingly small deficiency in the transparency of the free
aether would be sufficient to prevent the light of the fixed
stars from reaching the earth, since their distances are so
immense. But when light is transmitted through a material
medium, it always suffers some loss, the light energy being
absorbed by the medium, that is, converted partially or
wholly into other forms of energy such as heat, a portion of
which transformed energy may be re-emitted as radiant energy
of a lower frequency. Even the most transparent bodies known
absorb an appreciable portion of the light transmitted through
them. Thus the atmosphere absorbs a part of the sun's
rays, and the greater the distance which the rays have to
traverse the greater is the proportion which is absorbed,
so that on this account the sun appears less bright towards
sunset. On the other hand, light can penetrate some distance
into all substances, even the most opaque, the absorption
being, however, extremely rapid in the latter case.
The nature of the surface of a body has considerable
influence on its power of absorbing light. Platinum
black, for instance, in which the metal is in a state of
fine division, absorbs nearly all the light incident on
it, while polished platinum reflects the greater part. In
the former case the light penetrating between the particles
is unable to escape by reflexion, and is finally absorbed.
The question of absorption may be considered from either of
two points of view. We may treat it as a superficial effect,
especially in the case of bodies which are opaque enough or
thick enough to prevent all transmission of light, and we
may investigate how much is reflected at the surface and how
much is absorbed; or, on the other hand, we may confine our
attention to the light which enters the body and inquire into
the relation between the decay of intensity and the depth of
penetration. We shall take these two cases separately.
Absorptive Power.--When none of the radiations which fall
on a body penetrates through its substance, then the ratio
of the amount of radiation of a given wave-length which
is absorbed to the total amount received is called the
``absorptive power'' of the body for that wave-length.
Thus if the body absorbed half the incident radiation its
absorptive power would be 1/2, and if it absorbed all the
incident radiation its absorptive power would be 1. A body
which absorbs all radiations of all wavelengths would be
called a ``perfectly black body.'' No such body actually
exists, but such substances as lamp-black and platinum-black
approximately fulfil the condition. The fraction of the
incident radiation which is not absorbed by a body gives a
measure of its reflecting power, with which we are not here
concerned. Most bodies exhibit a selective action on light,
that is to say, they readily absorb light of particular
wave-lengths, light of other wave-lengths not being largely
absorbed. All bodies when heated emit the same kind of
radiations which they absorb---an important principle known
as the principle of the equality of radiating and absorbing
powers. Thus black substances such as charcoal are very
luminous when heated. A tile of white porcelain with a black
pattern on it mill, if heated red-hot, show the pattern bright
on a darker ground. On the other hand, those substances
which either are good reflectors or good transmitters, are
not so luminous at the same temperature; for instance, melted
silver, which reflects well, is not so luminous as carbon
at the same temperature, and common salt, which is very
transparent for most kinds of radiation, when poured in a
fused condition out of a bright red-hot crucible, looks almost
like water, showing only a faint red glow for a moment or
two. But all such bodies appear to lose their distinctive
properties when heated in a vessel which nearly encloses them,
for in that case those radiations which they do not emit are
either transmitted through them from the walls of the vessel
behind, or else reflected from their surface. This fact may
be expressed by saying that the radiation within a heated
enclosure is the same as that of a perfectly black body.
Coefficient of Absorption, and Law of Absorption.---The law
which governs the rate of decay of light intensity in passing
through any medium may be readily obtained. If I0 represents
the intensity of the light which enters the surface, I1 the
intensity after passing through 1 centimetre, I2 the intensity
after passing through 2 centimetres, and so on; then we should
expect that whatever fraction of I0 is absorbed in the first
centimetre, the same fraction of I1 will be absorbed in the
second. That is, if an amount jI0 is absorbed in the first
centimetre, JI1 is absorbed in the second, and so on. We have then
I1 = I0(1--j)
I2 = I1(1--j) = I0(1--j)2
I3 = I2(1--j) = I0(1--j)3
and so on, so that if I is the intensity after
passing through a thickness t in centimetres
I = I0(1--j)t (1).
We might call j, which is the proportion absorbed in one
centimetre, the ``coefficient of absorption'' of the medium.
1/2t would, however, not then apply to the case of a body
for which the whole light is absorbed in less than one
centimetre. It is better then to define the coefficient of
absorption as a quantity k such that k/n of the light is
absorbed in 1/nth part of a centimetre, where n may be
taken to be a very large number. The formula (1) then becomes
