DEFINITIONS AND FUNDAMENTAL RELATIONS. 473 . 
the study of the relation that exists between our subjective ideas of matter and its attri- 
butes, and the objective attributes of matter as they exist in themselves, and if our clue is 
not long enough to thread the entire maze, it may at least enable us to effect an entrance, 
and gradually to explore a goodly portion of the labyrinth. 
39. Though Motivity, Spontaneity, and Rationality may never be seen in pure and 
separate activity, in their combined action we can always, and usually without much diffi- 
culty, recognize one of the three as predominant. The respective degrees of influence 
severally exerted by the three Conscious forms, furnish us with a basis for division into 
primary faculties, and for subdivision to any required extent, according to subjective or 
objective tendencies, or rather according to motive, spontaneous, or rational resemblances. 
If any difficulty in precisely limiting and defining any particular faculty should appear 
discouraging, it may be well to glance at the various attempts that have been made at 
classification in the Natural Sciences, and to the proverbial difficulties that surround 
every attempt at system, introducing perturbations into most of our calculations, and pro- 
ducing exceptions to all general rules. Shall we discard the division of Physical Nature 
into three kingdoms, because it is impossible to determine the point at which the mineral 
is clothed with vegetable life, or to mark the precise boundary between the zoophyte and 
the plant? If Cuvier and Agassiz differ in opinicn as to the genus or species to which a 
particular animal should be assigned, shall we pronounce the Science of Natural History 
worthless ? 
36. Our primary division of Consciousness has been logically deduced from a considera- 
tion of the relations which it necessarily assumes to the objective, but these relations do 
not in any way change the essential nature of the related terms. Like Consciousness 
itself, each of its subdivisions is subjective, and may be analyzed in its turn by regarding 
the modifications it assumes under different relations, as determining or determined by the 
objective, or as acting under subjective influences for purely subjective ends. If, then, we 
designate the Subjective under the objective-subjective relation by M, under the subjec- 
tive-subjective by S, and under the subjective-objective by R, Motivity, Spontaneity, and 
Rationality may be severally indicated by the simple symbols, M, 8, R, and their imme- 
diate subdivisions by MM, MS, MR,—SM, SS, SR,—RM, RS, RR. Extending this plan 
of subdivision, we obtain the following symbolic schema, which may be continued inde- 
finitely, marking a precise, well-defined, and philosophical arrangement of the mental 
faculties. 
