144 NATURE TRANSMUTED INTO ART. 



the ideal sfraightness of a mathematical line, are ir- 

 regular. But sfraightness is the one essential quality 

 of a Rule or Ruhr ; and so of a LAW which is a Rule 

 of Conduct, or a Regulator of our ways of Thinking, 

 and hence of Acting. We cannot, therefore, look to 

 Nature for RuL s or Laws ; and Science itself being 

 nothing but a Systematized Collection of Rules and 

 Laws, it follows that we cannot look to Nature 

 for Science, in the highest, most exact sense of that 

 term. Even in Astronomy, it is not the bodies 

 of the sun and planets, primarily, but only thrir 

 geometrical relations, which we study. From the High 

 Scientological Point of View, Abstract Science is, there- 

 fore, THE ONLY TRUE SCIENCE ; Natural and all Obser- 

 vational Science is Pseudo-Science ; or, at least, Sub- 

 ordinate and less positively entitled to the name. 



172. In Pure Ideal, in Thought itself, in Blank Ex- 

 ternal Space, or in the Echoing Mind-Space within, 

 nothing hinders us from drawing Lines Absolutely 

 straight, (saving an ulterior transcendental criticism 

 upon even this statement.) It is here, therefore, and 

 here alone, that we can establish RULES, and LAWS, and 

 Systematic Scientific -Schemes of Thought, witli which 

 afterwards to compare the Deviations of Nature ; by 

 which, therefore, to measure Nature ; and so even ulti- 

 mately to control and systematize her operations ; to 

 regenerate NATURE, in fine, through SCIENCE ; and so, 

 ultimately, to convert the Crude Realm of Nature into 

 the Sublime, Beautiful and Divine Realm of ART. 



173. It follows, therefore, as said above, that Science 

 is radically planted in " The Abstract," and not in 



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