xv CONCEPTUAL THOUGHT 359 



Now, it is not the mere disentangling of common characters 

 that is essential to the higher stage, but, as we have seen, 

 the power of recombining. We are at the edge of the 

 plane of general reasoning as soon as the mind can make 

 for itself, without the aid of perception, an intelligible 

 synthesis of common qualities. It may then be said to have 

 a practical command of that attributive relation upon which 

 the general concept is based. This synthesis the child no 

 doubt learns to make largely from others. If, as is here 

 assumed, the evolution hypothesis is correct, the human 

 race must have learnt it step by step alongside with the 

 development of language. 



() Given the power of operating with common qualities 

 as units, all that we have called the world of ideas becomes 

 possible. Henceforward the experience of each individual 

 dwells alongside with a body of thought distinct from but 

 related to it. For this body of thought is in large part a 

 heritage from others, and in turn helps to regulate the 

 direct experience of the individual. This perpetual cross 

 reference between acquired ideas and direct experience is 

 the fundamental feature of human thought, of the existence 

 of which in the animal world there is not the slightest trace. 



(f) The contrast in explicitness and comprehension be- 

 tween this stage and the preceding sufficiently appears from 

 the nature of the Universal itself. We saw that logically the 

 procedure of the lower stage was an argument from particu- 

 lars to particulars. Such an argument implies the universal 

 truth ; i.e., it is the common character of the two cases 

 that operate within the mind to produce the inference, 

 while if the mind reflects upon its own process, it is com- 

 pelled to recognise that the process is only valid if the 

 universal truth holds. In the present stage the Universal, 

 we have seen, is recognised ; i.e., the implication of the 

 lower form of inference is now made explicit. And what 

 is true universally, is recognised as being true necessarily. 

 Logical sequence not merely directs the operations of mind, 

 but is recognised by the mind, and not merely by the 

 reflecting mind of the logician, but by every one who has 

 learnt the use of ''therefore" and "because." We have 

 already compared the two lower stages of intelligence to a 



