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Triad Reality, Negation, Limitation. This deter

mines it to be a real object, because it negates every thing else, and thus produces a limit to the Sensation, commonly called thing. This triad settles the limits of the object, or its QUALITY. The next Triad which the UNDERSTANDING impresses upon the Sensation settles whether the object is a Substance, the Effect of a Substance, or Part of a Whole; and this determines the RELATION of the Sensation to ourselves and to surrounding objects, under the Triad of Substance and Accident, Cause and Effect, Action and Reaction.

In this manner, the UNDERSTANDING, by virtue of its triple triads of QUANTITY, QUALITY, and RELATION, produces out of the given matter an intelligent object of nature. These natural objects— trees, rivers, mountains, animals, and so on-are compounds of Sensation, amalgamated and produced by the UNDERSTANDING, though, for want of a little more enlightenment in the

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Philosophy of Mind," falsely considered as totally distinct from the Sentient Being, who alone has given them the forms under which they appear. The fault here committed is the innocent one of mistaking the Effect for the Cause. It is most certain that the origi

nating CAUSE of Sensation is distinct from the mind, and called in this Science, by way of distinction, noumenon; while the joint Effect, or the Sensation formed into an object by the UNDERSTANDING, is, by way of distinction, called phenomenon. This is the joint produce of the Cause out of the mind and the original laws of the UNDERSTANDING, under the influence of the TRIUNE PRINCIPLE. The truth of this procedure may be proved with the greatest ease, as well to the illiterate as to the most erudite intellect that ever reflected on the objects of nature. On analysing any natural object, we never get beyond the Sensation, which is the matter of which the objects of nature are composed, conjointly with the mental form, under the triads we have already explained. Thus we are proceeding with the proof of our assertion that the universal TRIUNE PRINCIPLE pervades the whole of nature, and furnishes this equation:

Matter Form + Connexion = Nature.

The mental procedure already explained may we! 'e termed the Constitutive use of Understanding; becau without given matter and produced form, nature, as w apprehend it, could not exist. There is, however, still

another triad, which determines our view of considering nature, under the head MODALITY; and this is the Triad of Possibility, Existence, Necessity. When an object of nature is beyond the reach of our ken, we are unable to pronounce upon it as inhabitants in the moon; but, on finding that the thought does not contradict any of the mental laws, we must grant it to be Possible. Whoever peruses these pages will have no hesitation in saying that they were penned by their author, and that, as the book exists, its author also must have existed. Sufficient evidence of the second member of the triad - Existence. Lastly, when we find notions so knit together that if we take one away we destroy the other, we have a full and perfect notion of the third member of the triad - Necessity. A triangle consists of three lines-remove one, the figure instantly vanishes. Every object of nature must of necessity be ranked under one of these three classes. The above succinct account of a very elaborate mental procedure-nay, of the operation of those original and primitive laws which construct entire experience enables us to display this quadruple set of Triads, which it has pleased Almighty God to employ as instruments

in the generation of nature, in a somewhat more conve

nient form in the subjoined table.

[blocks in formation]

1. Unity,
2. Multitude, 2. Negation, 2. ... Cause and Effect,
3. Totality. 3. Limitation. 3.

1. Reality, 1. Substance and Accident, 1. Possibility,

2. Existence, Action and Reaction. 3 Necessity.

The internal perfection and absolute completeness of these twelve original and primitive laws of human intellect are sufficient evidence of the Divinity of their Author. No one but GoD could have framed so powerful and yet so simple an instrument as the human UNDERSTANDING, which, with its twelve laws, He makes the unconscious author of the infinitely varied and supremely beautiful pictures of nature, that fill the mind with extatic delight. Is it not a wonderful operation— one that calls forth all our puny gratitude to find that the Author of Nature has employed us as essential manufacturers of his own Almighty works- and all this without our will or consent! Yet, destroy the human UNDERSTANDING, and nature vanishes. What possible object of nature can there be which has neither QUANTITY nor QUALITY, and does not stand in RELATION to surrounding objects? - None ! Hence the

necessity of those laws which, unknown to man, he, by virtue of his mind, imprints on every Sensation that enters the channels of SENSE. Is not, therefore, the term, Original use of Understanding, not only very happy but at the same time strictly scientific, since we find that this faculty actually generates every object that we denominate nature! So much for the multiplication of triad upon triad, as a proof of the universality of the TRIUNE PRINCIPLE.

As we have established, for ever, the ouτos, étepos, Guvexns, in the minutest operation of the human Intellect

even in the generation of unity, which requires two parts and connexion, or it is nothing—we are decidedly advancing with the proof of our assertion—that the TRIUNE PRINCIPLE is coeval with the human mind, since it constitutes its very essence. Here also we shall gain much scientific precision by establishing a term that shall always indicate when the mind is exerting its twelve primitive and original powers in their two states; the one, when it impresses their form on the Sensation, which joint produce we usually and quite correctly denominate nature; the other, when these twelve laws are abstracted entirely from the given Sensation, and form combinations of pure mental

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