As the old woman on a bicycle so perfectly puts. . .
Ineluctable – that which cannot be escaped from.
modality– A condition like eyesight. Hearing is a modality. However, from each condition a limitation can also be implied. As eyesight is a modality, it also implies the limitation of not being able to hear, or being limited by the quality of our eyesight. A modality only offers a partial reality. Eyesight doesn’t give us reality in its entirety, because it can’t give us hearing or taste, both which add aspects to reality. Eyesight, hearing, and taste are all visible modalities, and all limiting, even together.
By its nature of being visible, it is an ineluctable modality. That which is visible is limited because it’s being observed by a modality which implies a limitation.
This is the entire sentence as it appears in Ulysses:
“Ineluctable modality of the visible: at least that if no more, thought through my eyes.”
This means his current thought is only about what he is observing through his eyes. “at least that and no more” implies the limitations of eye sight and he is saying here that there is more. There is an old saying that goes “there is more than meets the eye.”
Now...imagination on the other hand. . .