xvi INTRODUCTION 



principles. ("Subject" is used to include all the 

 mental and spiritual powers.) There is here an 

 internal conformity with plan, which, however, is 

 revealed only when the subject becomes active. And 

 so we must observe the subject while, as its activity 

 dictates, it is in process of receiving impressions and 

 making use of them. 



The impressions received by the subject always 

 consist of sense-qualities, which it then arranges and 

 connects into unities, which we call objects. Accord- 

 ingly we have to distinguish in every object between 

 two things : — (i) the sense-qualities, which Kant called 

 the fnaterial^ and (2) the arrangement imposed on them 

 by the mind, which he called thefor^n of knowledge. 



Undoubtedly, before any single piece of knowledge 

 can be received, its form must be already prepared in 

 the mind. But these forms change in the course of 

 experience. Kant did not concern himself with those 

 forms of knowledge which are of such great importance 

 biologically ; he restricted himself to those which must 

 have preceded all experience whatsoever. In this way, 

 he proposed to lay the foundations of the principles 

 that apply to every human being (quite independently 

 of what other mental gifts he may have), by means of 

 which he turns his experience to account. And thus 

 Kant endeavoured to establish the universal and 

 essential laws, uninfluenced by any psychology what- 

 soever, according to which each mind collects experi- 

 ences. This led him to set up the two intuitional forms 

 of space and time, which are necessary for every 

 experience. 



And if these seemingly simplest of the forms in 

 which the mind finds expression, have, since Kant's 

 day, become susceptible of further analysis, this merely 

 means that the principle of analysis, as employed by 

 him, has proved to be a discovery even more brilliant 

 than was supposed. 



