252 



Thoughts on Causality. 



energy put forth. This must retain through an indefinite 

 series of terms, the same quality and quantity as belonged 

 to the initial and only logically causative act. Original 

 causation, on the contrary, is not bound by any qualitative 

 relation between cause and effect — though, in the finite 

 sphere, subject to other conditions which may variously 

 restrict the field of effects. 



6. The subject must be conscious of motive prompting to 

 produce the effect conceived. There must always be a reason 

 why an intelligence acts one way rather than another. 

 This necessary " reason why " is often styled the " final 

 cause." 



7. The subject may cognize a contingency existing — that 

 is, a fact constant or varying which sustains some estab- 

 lished relation to the effect contemplated. Such fact, if it 

 exist, becomes a " condition " or " conditioning cause." 



8. The subject must become conscious of the influence of 

 the contingency (if it exist) upon the conscious motive — adding 

 to or taking from it. 



9. The subject must next be conscious of a desire to 

 produce the effect conceived. This desire would be modified 

 in a manner coordinated with the contingently modified 

 motive. 



10. The subject must next be conscious of a formed 

 intention to 'produce the effect. " Intentionality," whose gene- 

 sis arises at this point, incloses all the mental acts which 

 precede — self-consciousness, intuition of causal relation, 

 motivity, perception of conditionality (if existing) and de- 

 sire (conditionally modified). 



11. The subject must finally will the effect, modified by 

 the contingent fact, if it exist. 



This is the whole process of original causation as repre- 

 sented in individual consciousness, which, unless the har- 

 monies of the universe be fatally misleading, is the finite 

 eflection of the method of infinite causation. 



