INTRINSIC LAW OF APPREHENSION. 149 



a real existence to abstract conceptions and qualities, 

 treating them as subjects which have a substantial 

 being, and which act for the most part with deliberate 

 purpose, although they are not transformed as in the 

 case of myths into human shapes. 



In abstract, intellectual conceptions, such as those 

 of equality, distance, number, and the like, the same 

 faculty and the same elements are at work as in those 

 which express physical and moral qualities. These 

 conceptions, which as civilization advances ultimately 

 become mere intellectual symbols necessary for logical 

 speech, are at first formed by the actual comparison 

 of things, and therefore by the aid of the senses. 

 Even if we were to assert with some schools of thought 

 that they were formed a priori in the mind, sensation 

 would still be necessary as the occasion of displaying 

 them. When such conceptions are expressed in words 

 there is a physiological recurrence to the mind of 

 what may be termed the shadow of previous sensations 

 or perceptions, which are united in an intellectual type 

 to give rise to such conceptions. And in the appear- 

 ance of this phenomenal basis, thought unconsciously 

 fulfils the fundamental law of assuming, or I might 

 say of actually feeling, the reality of the subject. 



It must be remembered that in speaking of these 

 entities created by the intellect, I refer to the primitive 

 ages of human thought, or to the notions of ignorant 

 people, and also to the spontaneous language of 

 educated men, who in ordinary conversation do not 



