28 THE WORLD-ENERGY 



does exclude change from existence as a whole, yet the law 

 of contradiction, which is but a more explicit form of 

 stating the same truth as that contained in the first, dis- 

 tinctly assumes change to be perpetual for every finite 

 form of existence. Any given thing is perpetually in pro- 

 cess, and can <( begin/' at any given moment, in this or 

 that particular phase of the process only. 



The first law declares the permanence and continuity 

 of existence as a whole. The second law declares that the 

 particular aspects of existence are in a ceaseless process. 



Again let us regard A as a symbol of the totality of 

 all that exists. Then it becomes evident that while all 

 change is involved in A, there can never by any possibility 

 be any change of A. 



We find ourselves thus contemplating that absolute 

 Identity which includes all possible difference within 

 itself. Here the seemingly negative law of contradiction 

 is found to negate the non-existent absolutely, and thus 

 to be the positively developed form of the law of identity 

 in that it is the absolute affirmation of all reality. 



The "law of excluded middle" finally, announces that 

 the existent and the non-existent exhaust the possibilities 

 of thought. " A thing must either be or not be; " there 

 is no third or " middle " possibility. Whatever is, not 

 only must T>e, but must be in a state of perfect definiteness. 



The first law of thought affirms positively that what 

 exists is self -consistent; the second affirms the same thing 

 negatively in declaring that the existent cannot contradict 

 itself, either by being at the same time non-existent, or by 

 presenting the same portions of itself at the same time 

 under mutually exclusive forms; while the third law 

 reaffirms absolutely the self-consistency of the existent as 

 being necessary. 



