[Footnote 522: ][ (return) ] Ibid., bk. v. ch. xxi.
We have seen that our first conceptions (i.e., first in the order of time) are of the mingled, the concrete (τὸ συγκεχυµένον), "the multiplicity of things to which the multitude ascribe beauty, etc. [523] The mind "contemplates what is great and small, not as distinct from each other, but as confused. [524] Prior to the discipline of reflection, men are curious about mere sights and sounds, love beautiful voices, beautiful colors, beautiful forms, but their intelligence can not see, can not embrace, the essential nature of the Beautiful itself. [525] Man's condition previous to the education of philosophy is vividly presented in Plato's simile of the cave. [526] He beholds only the images and shadows of the ectypal world, which are but dim and distant adumbrations of the real and archetypal world.
Primarily nothing is given in the abstract (τὸ κεγωρισµένον), but every thing in the concrete. The primary faculties of the mind enter into action spontaneously and simultaneously; all our primary notions are consequently synthetic. When reflection is applied to this primary totality of consciousness, that is, when we analyze our notions, we find them composed of diverse and opposite elements, some of which are variable, contingent, individual, and relative, others are permanent, unchangeable, universal, necessary, and absolute. Now these elements, so diverse, so opposite, can not have been obtained from the same source; they must be supplied by separate powers. "Can any man with common sense reduce under one what is infallible, and what is not infallible?" [527] Can that which is "perpetually becoming" be apprehended by the same faculty as that which "always is?" [528] Most assuredly not.
[Footnote 523: ][ (return) ] Ibid., bk. v. ch. xxii.
[Footnote 524: ][ (return) ] Ibid., bk. vii. ch. viii.
[Footnote 525: ][ (return) ] Ibid., bk. v. ch. xx.
[Footnote 526: ][ (return) ] Ibid., bk. vii. ch. i., ii.
[Footnote 527: ][ (return) ] "Republic," bk. v. ch. xxi.
[Footnote 528: ][ (return) ] Ibid., bk. v. ch. xxii.; also "Timæus," § 9.