CAUSES OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE 295

human faculty to the other powers and existences we know

the cosmos to possess, it must assume an altogether different

character in our eyes. So considered, its causal principle

must be indeed a rational principle, since it has been

adequate to be the cause of the reason and intellect of

man.

Human beings, whatever the feebleness, follies, and

defects of multitudes of them, are, nevertheless, endowed

with the wonderful power of knowing their own existence,

of reflecting on it and on the universe which is their abode,

and of recognizing abysses of space and time far exceed-

ing the utmost possible powers of their imagination. Man

can apprehend existence and non-existence, necessity, im-

possibility, and contingency, and, most wonderful of all, he

can perceive truth as such, the existence and bearings

of objective relations and verities, which are absolute and

necessary, recognizing them, meantime, for what they truly

are.

The adequate cause and principle of a nature thus

endowed must possess powers indefinitely exceeding that

human reason which it has called into being. It must be

intelligent, not only beyond all our possible powers of

imagination, but beyond all human conception. For the

special character of those primary and fundamental prin-

ciples of our intelligence which we have passed in review,

is that they need no proof, being self-evident in and by

themselves, while they constitute the indispensable founda-

tion of all proof whatever it may be. Such primary

principles may be said to be rays of light which radiate

into our intellect from a source which is entirely hidden

from our direct mental gaze, and only to be imperfectly

apprehended through meditation, reflexion, and inference.

Truth being the correspondence of thought with things,

what must be that hidden cause in a correspondence with

human faculty to the other powers and existences we know

the cosmos to possess, it must assume an altogether different

character in our eyes. So considered, its causal principle

must be indeed a rational principle, since it has been

adequate to be the cause of the reason and intellect of

man.

Human beings, whatever the feebleness, follies, and

defects of multitudes of them, are, nevertheless, endowed

with the wonderful power of knowing their own existence,

of reflecting on it and on the universe which is their abode,

and of recognizing abysses of space and time far exceed-

ing the utmost possible powers of their imagination. Man

can apprehend existence and non-existence, necessity, im-

possibility, and contingency, and, most wonderful of all, he

can perceive truth as such, the existence and bearings

of objective relations and verities, which are absolute and

necessary, recognizing them, meantime, for what they truly

are.

The adequate cause and principle of a nature thus

endowed must possess powers indefinitely exceeding that

human reason which it has called into being. It must be

intelligent, not only beyond all our possible powers of

imagination, but beyond all human conception. For the

special character of those primary and fundamental prin-

ciples of our intelligence which we have passed in review,

is that they need no proof, being self-evident in and by

themselves, while they constitute the indispensable founda-

tion of all proof whatever it may be. Such primary

principles may be said to be rays of light which radiate

into our intellect from a source which is entirely hidden

from our direct mental gaze, and only to be imperfectly

apprehended through meditation, reflexion, and inference.

Truth being the correspondence of thought with things,

what must be that hidden cause in a correspondence with