The Metaphysical Basis of Science. 31 



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-" Every possible object of thought is to a certain extent diverse 

 from every other." The first gives the positive (subjective) 

 condition of the proposition, the second the negative (objec- 

 tive) condition : both together constitute the conditions of 

 thinking. The proposition is thus the assertion of the same in 

 the different. The proposition also asserts, implicitly, the 

 iertiura quid^ or the basis of classification — the class-type, to 

 which both terms are referred — that is, the proposition second- 

 arily asserts an analysis. According to the first condition we 

 have the inductive process ; according to the second we have 

 the deductive process. A complete movement of idea from 

 its purely physical symbolization to its metaphysical interpre- 

 tation, must involve both these processes. 



The mind possesses the power of analysis ; it can watch its 

 own operations and retrace its steps, until it arrives at the 

 original data of consciousness ; but analysis cannot comprise 

 the whole of the logical process. Before there can be analysis 

 there must be something to be analyzed; before steps can be 

 retraced, they must be taken. We must not confound a con- 

 dition with a Law — the one is a conception antecedent to all 

 action, a genus to which the particular activity may be 

 referred ; the other is coincident with action. The one is the 

 medium of the other. We may illustrate this idea by science 

 itself, which is reached only by an analysis of Art. Matter is 

 the condition of the expression of an idea; hence to all but 

 the artist. Art must precede Science, but this cannot be in the 

 case of the artist; in his mind the Idea is first conceived, and 

 there it is given expression in the forms of Art. Here, as uni- 

 formly in Nature, the whole absolutely precedes the part — ■ 

 the universal exists before the particular — God before man. 

 Truth absolute thus exists before truth conditioned. Science 

 iDefore Art. Remove conditions and the conditioned becomes 

 the absolute; art and science coincide. But truth which is 

 assumed to be out of all relations, cannot be comprehended by 

 man, and practically is not. Even the universal propositions 



