173. In order to know how extension is generated, it would be necessary to free ourselves from all sensible representations, and from all ideas which are in the least degree affected by the phenomenon, and to contemplate it with an eye as simple, a look as penetrating, as that of a pure spirit. It would be necessary to take from all geometrical ideas all phenomenal forms, all representations of the imagination, and present them to the imagination purified from all mixture with the sensible order. It would be necessary to know how far extension, real continuity, agrees with the phenomenal. It would, in fine, be necessary to eliminate from the object perceived, all that relates to the subject which perceives it.
174. In extension, as we have already seen, there are two things to be considered; multiplicity, and continuity. As to the first, there is no objection to supposing that it may be the result of unextended points, since number results from various units whether they are simple or composite. But the difficulty is with regard to continuity, which sensible intuition clearly presents to us as the basis of the representations of the imagination, but the nature of which is a puzzle to the understanding. It may perhaps be said that continuity, abstracted from the sensible representation, and considered only in the transcendental order, is, in its reality and as it appears to a pure spirit, nothing more than the constant relation of many beings, which are of a nature to produce in a sensitive being the phenomenon of representation, and to be perceived in the intuition which we call the representation of space.
According to this hypothesis extension in the external world is real, not only as a principle of causality of our impressions, but also as an object subject to the necessary relations which we conceive.
175. But, then, it will be asked, is the external world such as we imagine it? To this we must answer, in accordance with what we have said when treating of sensations, that it is necessary to take from sensations all that is subjective, and which by an innocent illustration we look upon as objective; we may then say that extension really exists outside of us and independent of our sensations; considered in itself, it exists free from all sensible representation, and in the same manner in which a pure spirit may perceive it.
176. We see no objection which can reasonably be made to this theory which affirms the reality of the corporeal world, at the same time that it settles the difficulties of idealism. To give my opinion in a few words, I say: That extension in itself, exists such as God knows it, and in the cognition of God there is no mixture of any of the sensible representations which always accompany man's perception. That which is positive in extension is multiplicity, together with a certain constant order; continuity is nothing more than this constant order, in so far as sensibly represented in us, it is a purely subjective phenomenon which does not at all affect the reality.
177. We may even assign a reason why sensible intuition has been given to us. Our soul is united to an organized body,—that is to say, a collection of beings bound together by constant relation to each other and to the other bodies of the universe. In order that the harmony might not be interrupted, and that the soul which presides over this organization might rightly exercise its functions, there was need of a continued representation of this collection of the relations of our own and other bodies. This representation must be simultaneous and independent of intellectual combinations; for otherwise the animal faculties could not be exercised with the promptness and perseverance which the satisfaction of the necessities of life demands. Therefore it is that all sensible beings, even those which have not reason, have been endowed with this intuition of extension or space: which is like an unlimited field on which the different parts of the universe are represented.
[CHAPTER XXV.]
HARMONY OF THE REAL, PHENOMENAL, AND IDEAL ORDERS.
178. We may consider two natures in the external world, the one real, the other phenomenal; the first is particular and absolute, the second is relative to the being which perceives the phenomenon; by the first the world is, by the second it appears. A pure intellectual being knows the world as it is; a sensitive being experiences it as it appears. We can discover this duality in ourselves; in so far as we are sensitive beings, we experience the phenomenon, but in so far as intelligent, although we do not know the reality, we attempt to reach it by reasoning and conjecture.