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234 In proportion as beings Post Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 6:42:52 +0000 The lowest idea of an object is that which we form when we conceive it absolutely limited to existence, completely inert, without either internal or external activity. A stone has existence and a determinate form ; it is what it was made, and nothing more ; it preserves the form which was given to it, but it has no activity to communicate with other beings, no consciousness of what it is ; in all its relations it is passive ; it receives but cannot give. 234 In proportion as beings rise in the scale of perfec tion, this isolation ceases; active properties are combined with the passive; such we conceive to be the corporeal agents, which, although they do not reach the category of living beings, take an active part in the production of pheno mena in the laboratory of nature. Autor of the post: Undefined Their life is a continual Post Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 7:01:56 +0000 In these beings we find besides what they are, what they can do; their relations with other beings are many and varied ; their existence is not confined to the circle of their own existence ; but it ex pands and is communicated in some ay to others. 235 In organized beings we find a more expansive na ture. Their life is a continual expansion. Autor of the post: Undefined It is only an imperceptible Post Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 7:21:23 +0000 The living being extends in a measure beyond the limits of its own exist ence ; for it bears within it the germs of its reproduction. Its existence is not for itself alone, but for others also. It is only an imperceptible link in the great chain of nature ; but the vibrations of this link are felt in the remotest con fines of the universe. Autor of the post: Undefined By the consciousness of its Post Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 7:38:06 +0000 236 Life is still more extended when it becomes sensa tion. The sensitive being contains in himself, as it were, the universe. By the consciousness of its affections, it places itself in new relations with all that acts upon it. Autor of the post: Undefined There is a profound truth Post Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 7:50:53 +0000 Perception is immanent, that is to say, it remains in the subject, but with the subjective is combined the objective, by which the universe is reflected on a point. Being does not then exist in itself alone, it becomes in some manner other things. There is a profound truth in the expression of the scholastics : " That which knows is the thing known. Autor of the post: Undefined Although extension teaches us something Post Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 8:08:12 +0000 " There is a certain order in sensations ; they are more per fect in proportion as they are less subjective ; the most noble are those which place us in communication with ob jects considered in themselves, those which are not limited to the experience of what the objects cause in us, but in clude the knowledge of what the objects are. 237 Extension is the basis of the objectiveness of sensa tions, but it is not the direct and immediate object of sensation. Although extension teaches us something of the reality of beings as regards a certain arrangement of them among themselves, it is not so much the object of a sensitive faculty as of intelligence. Autor of the post: Undefined It penetrates to the reality Post Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 8:21:55 +0000 Here sensation ceases and science commences. Science is not satisfied with what the objects appear. It penetrates to the reality ; the under standing does not stop with the subjective, but passes to the objective, and when it cannot reach the reality, it wanders in the regions of possibility. Autor of the post: Undefined Hence the highest degree Post Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 8:40:27 +0000 238 Thus we see that the perfection of beings is in pro portion to their expansion. Accordingly as they are more perfect, they go farther out of their own sphere, and exer cise a more extended activity. Hence the highest degree of perception is the least subjective ; the lowest is sensation, which is limited to the experience of the sentient subject. Autor of the post: Undefined However this may be, we Post Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 8:52:51 +0000 Intelligence which is the highest degree, abstracts ex perience, and gives its whole attention to reality, its proper object. 239 If we could know the intimate nature of pure spirits, perhaps we should find that the sensitive faculties are altogether incompatible with the elevation of the:r in- telligence, and that the analogy founded on the nature of our perceptions has no value when applied to a more per fect order of intelligence. However this may be, we must admit that the question would have been solved in a very incomplete way, if we had limited it to the single aspect of simplicity. Autor of the post: Undefined 241 If we wish Post Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 9:10:02 +0000 These observations on the nature of intelli gence ought to make us very cautious in affirming to be possible, what we should perhaps see to be impossible, if our knowledge of the nature of things were greater. 240 So far we have spoken only of the intrinsical pos sibility ; what shall we say of the reality ? This is a ques tion of fact which can only be solved on data which our experience is unable to furnish, as we are not in immediate communication either with souls separated from bodies, or with pure spirits. 241 If we wish to look for an argument to prove that pure spirits and souls after they are separated from bodies, have no sensitive faculties, we shall find it in the consider ation of the end to which these faculties are destined, bet ter than by attempting to discover the essence of things. 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