CHAP. XXII.] CONSTITUTION OF THE INTELLECT. 405 



has, on the other hand, been variously contended, that the 

 subjects of such propositions are copies of individual objects of 

 experience ; that they are mere names ; that they are individual 

 objects of experience themselves; and that the propositions which 

 relate to them are, on account of the imperfection of those objects, 

 bnt partially true; lastly, that they are intellectual products 

 formed by abstraction from the sensible perceptions of individual 

 things, but so formed as to become, what the individual things 

 never can be, subjects of science, i.e. subjects concerning which 

 exact and general propositions may be affirmed. And there ex- 

 ist, perhaps, yet other views, in some of which the sensible, in 

 others the intellectual or ideal, element predominates. 



Now if the last of the views above adverted to be taken (for 

 it is not proposed to consider either the purely ideal or the 

 purely nominalist view) and if it be inquired what, in the 

 sense above stated, are the proper objects of science, objects in 

 relation to which its propositions are true without any mixture 

 of error, it is conceived that but one answer can be given. It 

 is, that neither do individual objects of experience, nor with all 

 probability do the mental images which they suggest, possess 

 any strict claim to this title. It seems to be certain, that neither 

 in nature nor in art do we meet with anything absolutely agreeing 

 with the geometrical definition of a straight line, or of a triangle, 

 or of a circle, though the deviation therefrom may be inappre- 

 ciable by sense ; and it may be conceived as at least doubtful, 

 whether we can form a perfect mental image, or conception, with 

 which the agreement shall be more exact. But it is not doubtful 

 that such conceptions, however imperfect, do point to something 

 beyond themselves, in the gradual approach towards which all 

 imperfection tends to disappear. Although the perfect triangle, 

 or square, or circle, exists not in nature, eludes all our powers of 

 representative conception, and is presented to us in thought 

 only, as the limit of an indefinite process of abstraction, yet, by 

 a wonderful faculty of the understanding, it may be made the 

 subject of propositions which are absolutely true. The domain of 

 reason is thus revealed to us as larger than that of imagination. 

 Should any, indeed, think that we are able to picture to ourselves, 

 with rigid accuracy , the scientific elements of form, direction, mag- 



