The Meta'pliysical Basis of Science. 33 



mind in action — that is, in reasoning, man must be God. Man 

 is finite. Even his infinite is only the immeasurable — not 

 that which is without the category of measure. He cannot 

 begin where the Infinite begins, at the highest possible gener- 

 alization, — but he must begin with the finite. If what we 

 have shown above be true, man must begin with the individ- 

 ual, and the first mental act of the positive character of think- 

 ing, is the reference of this individual notion to a class. Now 

 the class-notion is the same as the individual notion, less cer- 

 tain attributes as individual attributes, but gathered into a 

 larger whole. This process is plainly integration ; we are 

 rejecting from the new conception whatever prevents enlarging 

 the class. Each higher generalization involves all the attrib- 

 utes of the lower, not individually, but specifically or generi- 

 cally. In the final generalization, extension and intension 

 coalesce. Just as we reach the individual by differentiating a 

 universal through successive negations, we reach the univer- 

 sal again, by integration, by successively denying the negations 

 through which we just now differentiated. The movement of 

 the finite mind in reasoning is thus from the individual 

 through the universal to the individual again. 



Science thus parts into two great branches — one seeking to 

 establish principles by what we have called integration, and 

 the other the elucidation of facts by a priori reasoning in- 

 stead of observation. That is, the aim of true science is to 

 free man from the restrictions of the finite, and to place him 

 in possession of the infinite — the closing in of a lesser circle 

 of infinite truth, yet never losing hold upon the finite. In 

 accordance with this view we see science pursuing its integra- 

 tions until it has identified as composing an essential unity all 

 the various manifestations of force. This is the finite becom- 

 ing the infinite, for unity is, in so far, infinity — God is one, a 

 unity, not a unit. But we also see science going beyond this 

 point, and by a new series of differentiations reaching truths 

 new to experience, if indeed not impossible to experience. 



