AND ITS SELF-CONSERVATION. 17 



object is itself a reference of those objects to one another. 

 Their severalty, or state of severance., can not be compre- 

 hended in thought save through a corresponding recog- 

 nition of their unification or identity. 



In other words, the recognition of them in their par- 

 ticularity necessarily implies the recognition of them in 

 their universality. These, indeed, are but complementary 

 phases of every possible stage of knowing. The recogni- 

 tion of difference between objects is the negative reference 

 of those objects to each other that is, the recognition of 

 their dependence upon one another in that, to a greater 

 or less degree, the one has what the other lacks and lacks 

 what the other has. On the other hand, the recognition 

 of their similarity is the positive reference of them to each 

 other that is, the recognition of their tendency to coa- 

 lesce into one continuous, independent whole. 



The negative reference of object to object is the basis 

 of the recognition of multiplicity. The positive reference 

 of object to object is the basis of the recognition of unity. 

 Whence it is evident that the "one "and the "many" 

 are but complementary aspects of one and the same total. 



But, let us repeat, both the negative and the positive 

 reference of object to object is the seizure of a relation; 

 and while the seizure remains implicit in every act of per- 

 ception it becomes explicit as an act of ^owception. Thus 

 perception necessarily implies conception. The single 

 object cannot be seized in isolation. The seizure of it as 

 a single object is already implicitly a seizure of it in its 

 relations. On the other hand, the seizure of a relation 

 between objects necessarily implies that the objects them- 

 selves are already, in that very fact, perceived. Whence it 

 is evident that these two phases of the mind's activity 



