APPENDIX D 207 



(although fundamentally they are conditional), differ from 

 those that are called hypothetical, such as the following: If 

 a figure has three sides, its angles are equal to two right angles. In 

 this latter case we see that the antecedent (namely, the figure 

 with three sides) and the consequent (namely, the angles of the 

 three-sided figure are equal to two right angles) do not have 

 the same subject, as they had in the preceding case in which 

 the antecedent was This figure has three sides, and the conse- 

 quent The said figure has three angles. Nevertheless the 

 hypothetical might often be transformed into a categorical 

 by a slight change in the terms, for instance, if in place of the 

 preceding hypothetical I were to say : The angles of every three- 

 sided figure are equal to two right angles. The Scholastics have 

 argued much de constantia subjecti, as they called it, that is to 

 say, how a proposition regarding a subject can have a real 

 truth, if the subject has no existence. The fact is that the 

 truth is only conditional and says that, supposing the subject 

 ever exists, it will be found to be so-and-so. But it will still 

 be asked : On what is this connexion founded, since there is 

 within it reality which does not deceive ? The reply will be, - 

 that it is in the connexion of ideas. But it will be asked 

 again : Where would these ideas be, if no mind existed, and 

 what would then become of the real foundation of this certainty 

 of eternal truths ? That leads us at last to the ultimate founda- 

 tion of truths, namely, that supreme and universal spirit, which 

 cannot but exist, whose understanding, to speak truly, is the 

 region of eternal truths, as St. Augustine has recognized and 

 says in a vivid way 1 . And lest it should be thought unnecessary 

 to have recourse to this, it is to be noted that these necessary 

 truths contain the determining reason and regulative principle 

 of existences themselves, and, in a word, the laws of the 

 universe. Thus these necessary truths, being anterior to the 

 existence of contingent beings, must have their foundation in 

 the existence of a necessary substance. It is here that I find 

 the original of the ideas and truths which are graven in our 

 souls, not in the form of propositions, but as sources from which 

 application and opportunity will produce actual statements.' 



1 The reference may be to Augustine, De Genesi ad Litteram, bk. v. 

 cap. 13 sqq. (Migne's ed., iii. 331 sqq.), or to Enarratio in Psalmum 

 xlix. (Migne's ed., iv. 576 sqq.). Cf. De diversis Quaestionibus, Q. xlvi. 

 2 (Migne's ed., vi. 30). 



