defines them systematically. systematically. In the latter, it codifies the laws or constant modes of operation of said faculties.

"We have seen that all the powers of the animal, all its activities, proceed from a first act of the sentient principle, in which that principle co-operates in producing the fundamental feeling. If, now, we apply a similar reflection to the intelligent principle, we shall find that all its powers, all the activities of man, in so far as he is a being endowed with intelligence, have their source in that first act, wherein the human spirit intuites being, and thus, along with and through being, co-operates in positing his own intelligence.

"Indeed, in regard to the order of mental operations, an accurate analysis of our thoughts brings us to this result, that any thought or mental operation, whereby we acquire a new cognition, is always reducible to the determination and limitation of a cognition previously possessed, to a learning explicitly of what was before known implicitly; so that an implicit cognition, from which all other cognitions evolve themselves as from a germ, necessarily precedes these. All other cognitions are but a limitation of this first one, a continuation, a greater actuation, of it. The spirit, by the same activity whereby it intuites universal being, likewise intuites every particular being, because everything is already contained in universal being. Nothing further is required than that this being should show itself more and more to him who looks at it. Thus, he who goes to the theatre sees with the same act with which he looks at the stage all that appears on the stage. The scene on which everything appears to our spirit is universal being, into which we naturally and immovably gaze. Our eye, therefore, is always in tension, always strained to see what appears on the scene; it cannot close, it cannot wink. In this way, by that same act whereby the spirit intuites universal being, is explained every intellective activity of the mind" (Anthropology, §§ 508, 509).

"The human spirit naturally intuites ideal being.

This is not a potentiality but an act [ivépyɛia], an act essential to the spirit. It is the intellect, in so far as it goes to constitute an element of human nature. But if ideal being, naturally present to the human spirit, acquires a relation with the real world through sensations, then the intellect intuites being furnished with some determination, and toward this new act it is in a state of potentiality. This is what is called the potentiality of the intellect" (Anthropology, § 510). Cf. St. Thomas: "Intellectus dupliciter considerari potest. Uno modo secundum quod intellectus est apprensivus entis et veri universalis, alio modo secundum quod est quædam res et particularis potentia, habens determinatum actum" (Sum. Theol., i. q. 82, art. 4).

145.

that pre

selves

When we try to deduce the powers of the Questions mind from its essence, we are inevitably met by sent themsuch grave ontological questions as these: How when we can the unity of essence be reconciled with the try to de. multiplicity of powers? How can succession of

powers consist with permanence or immutability of essence? How can the same essence have a variety of accidental states? etc., etc.

Rosmini, in his Psychology (vol. ii. §§ 735-740, 854-909) and Theosophy (vol. v. pp. 257-259), devotes considerable space to the consideration of these questions. It will not be difficult to divine the answers, if we remember that difference of act is determined by difference of term, and that the terms of intellective activity are all given. It is entirely indifferent to light what it illuminates.

duce the

powers of

the soul
from its

essence.

Three classes of laws to which the soul is subject in its operations: (1) psychological, (2) ontological, (3) cosmological.

146.

Wonderful are the laws according to which the soul operates, whether immediately or mediately through its various powers. And, inasmuch as the soul is one and rational, it follows that all those faculties which we call human, as well as the laws of their operation, must emanate from the rational principle in its relations to its two terms. And thus we obtain three classes of laws-the psychological, the ontological, and the cosmological. The psychological laws are those which proceed from the nature of the soul itself as an active principle; the ontological, those that are imposed upon the soul by its higher, intellective term, which is being ; and the cosmological, those that are imposed upon it by its lower term, the sensible world.

The supreme ontological law is the principle of cognition.

Cosmological laws are

either laws of motion or laws of harmony.

147.

The supreme ontological law is the principle of cognition, which is thus expressed :—The term of thought is being. It is incredible how fruitful and wonderful this law is in its applications.

148.

Of the cosmological laws, some preside over the motion which the sensible term imparts to the human soul; others determine the quality of this motion. The former are called laws of motion; the latter, laws of harmony.

149.

those Two
mind

Finally, the psychological laws, that is, laws which spring from the force of the itself, are divided into two classes, corresponding laws, cor

to the ontological and cosmological laws.

classes of psychological

responding to the ontological and

All these laws are considered by Rosmini in various cosmological. chapters of his Psychology. From all it appears that the individual subject stands in a double relation to being. As ideal, being is presented to the subject as object; as real, it is presented to it as extra-subject. For the individual mind, therefore, the world of being is not divided into inner and outer in such a way that the former is subjective, the latter objective, but thus:

and last

But it cannot accom- aim of
Psycho-

discover

of the

human,

Finally, Psychology attempts to discover the The third destiny of the human soul. plish this discovery by the mere use of natural logy is to reason or the mere examination of human nature. the destiny It may, indeed, by this examination, show whither human nature tends; but it fails to grasp that soul. plus, which the free grace and munificence of the Infinite Being who created it holds in store for it. All, therefore, that we are able to arrive at through The soul the examination of human nature is this: The tends to first part of that nature is intelligence, and intelli- perfection,

naturally

its own

which con

sists in the full vision of truth, full exer

cise of virtue, and full attainment of happiness.

These three goods are but aspects of one and the same

good.

gence is made for truth. The second part is will, and will is made for virtue. By his will man adheres to the truth, loves it in all things, and thus loves all things according to their truth. But this love, which seeks to satisfy itself in beings according to truth, desires complete possession of that which it loves, and which is its good, because it loves it. There is, therefore, a third part in human nature, and this is feeling, in the broadest sense of the term. Feeling is a tendency to enjoy. The will, therefore, which adheres to truth and is thereby virtuous, the will which loves all beings according to truth, desires that all beings should be given it to enjoy, since through enjoyment it completes its knowledge and its love of them. This is what is meant by the phrase, "seeking for happiness."

From this we gather that the soul naturally tends to, and is destined for, perfection. This perfection consists in the full vision of truth, the full exercise of virtue, and the full attainment of felicity, a threefold end, a threefold destiny, which, nevertheless, forms a perfect unity, since no one of these three elements can exist in a complete form without the other two. The truth is not seen in its inmost recesses except by him who loves and enjoys it; no one fully loves the truth in the beings wherein it is actualized, unless he sees and enjoys it; no one has complete enjoyment of it or is happy, if he has not complete love for it and is virtuous, if he has not complete vision of it and is not wise. Each of these three goods implies