Substance and Shadow

Life or consciousness unites what sense and reason disunite. — Sir William Hamilton's curious theory of the causal judg- ment. — He finds the cause of a thing in the thing's own en- trails. — Thus he thinks saltpetre is not merely constituted but caused by K O and N 06. — Cause evoked only to explain some breach of natural order. — We never ask the cause of Things, but only of their mutations. — Sir W. Hamilton stul- tifies intelligence by confounding Finiteness with Phenomenal- ity. — They are as distinct as sense and reason. — Cause is adduced to explain ^cts of phenomenal not of fixed existence. — It is not a sensible but a rational inquest. — Cause is a sci- entific rudiment of the philosophic idea of creation. — The force of the caus,al judgment is in its educating or disciplining the intellect 299 CHAPTER XIX.