30 SIGNS AND THEIR LAWS. [CHAP. II. 



victuals to which their several meanings are together applicable, and 

 to the law that the order in which the symbols succeed each other is 

 indifferent. 



As the rule of interpretation has been sufficiently exempli- 

 fied, I shall deem it unnecessary always to express the subject 

 "things" in defining the interpretation of a symbol used for an 

 adjective. When I say, let x represent " good," it will be un- 

 derstood that x only represents " good" when a subject for that 

 quality is supplied by another symbol, and that, used alone, its in- 

 terpretation will be " good things." 



8. Concerning the law above- determined, the following ob- 

 servations, which will also be more or less appropriate to certain 

 other laws to be deduced hereafter, may be added. 



First, I would remark, that this law is a law of thought, and 

 not, properly speaking, a law of things. Difference in the order 

 of the qualities or attributes of an object, apart from all ques- 

 tions of causation, is a difference in conception merely. The law 

 (1) expresses as a general truth, that the same thing may be con- 

 ceived in different ways, and states the nature of that difference ; 

 and it does no more than this. 



Secondly, As a law of thought, it is actually developed in a 

 law of Language, the product and the instrument of thought. 

 Though the tendency of prose writing is toward uniformity, 

 yet even there the order of sequence of adjectives absolute in 

 their meaning, and applied to the same subject, is indifferent, 

 but poetic diction borrows much of its rich diversity from the 

 extension of the same lawful freedom to the substantive also. 

 The language of Milton is peculiarly distinguished by this spe- 

 cies of variety. Not only does the substantive often precede the 

 adjectives by which it is qualified, but it is frequently placed in 

 their midst. In the first few lines of the invocation to Light, 

 we meet with such examples as the following : 



" Offspring of heaven first-born ." 



" The rising world of waters dark and deep" 



" Bright effluence of bright essence increate" 



Now these inverted forms are not simply the fruits of a poetic 

 license. They are the natural expressions of a freedom sane- 



