322 THEREIGNOF LAW 



of origins. An Idea is, as it were, a fabric of 

 which the threads come from the spinner, and the 

 weaving from the loom. Or it is, as it were, an 

 organic growth, of which the materials are sup- 

 plied from the external world, and the structure 

 from the world within. There are many elements 

 in every Idea which come, and can only come, 

 from without. There are other elements, and 

 among them the Formative Power, which come, 

 and only can come, from within. The Mind 

 stands in pre-established relations to the things 

 around it — bound to them by the infinite adjust- 

 ments which may be called External Correlations 

 of Growth. Out of these relations it is not itself, 

 nor does its powers possess the materials whereon 

 to work. We cannot conceive a mind having no 

 points of contact with the external world. From 

 that world must come all the exciting causes of 

 Thought and of Emotion. But the form into which 

 these are cast — the tissue into which these are 

 woven — the force by which Ideas become a Power 

 — all, in short, that constitutes Thought as distin- 

 guished from the things about which we think — all 

 this comes from, and belongs to, the Mind itself. 



