First Principles

This general conclusion it now remains to interpret specifically, in its application to each of our ultimate scientific ideas. * * * * * § 62.[11] We think in relations. This is truly the form of all thought; and if there are any other forms, they must be derived from this. We have seen (Chap. iii. Part I.) that the several ultimate modes of being cannot be known or conceived as they exist in themselves; that is, out of _relation_ to our consciousness. We have seen, by analyzing the product of thought, (§ 23,) that it always consists of _relations_; and cannot include anything beyond the most general of these. On analyzing the process of thought, we found that cognition of the Absolute was impossible, because it presented neither _relation_, nor its elements—difference and likeness. Further, we found that not only Intelligence but Life itself, consists in the establishment of internal _relations_ in correspondence with external relations. And lastly, it was shown that though by the relativity of our thought we are eternally debarred from knowing or conceiving Absolute Being; yet that this very _relativity_ of our thought, necessitates that vague consciousness of Absolute Being which no mental effort can suppress. That _relation_ is the universal form of thought, is thus a truth which all kinds of demonstration unite in proving.