Un. Yes, that is the difficulty.
Reason. I do not see the “difficulty.” If Space can be limited only by itself, its limit continues it, instead of bounding it. Hence it is universally continuous or infinite.
Un. But a mere negative.
Reason. No, not a mere negative, but the negative of all negation, and hence truly affirmative. It is the exhibition of the utter impossibility of any negative to it. All attempts to limit it, continue it. It is its own other. Its negative is itself. Here, then, we have a truly affirmative infinite in contradistinction to the negative infinite—the “infinite progress” that you and Imagination were engaged upon when I came in.
Un. What you say seems to me a distinction in words merely.
Reason. Doubtless. All distinctions are merely in words until one has learned to see them independent of words. But you must go and mend that tripod on which you are sitting; for how can one think at ease and exhaustively, when he is all the time propping up his basis from without?
Un. I cannot understand you. [Exit.]
Note.
It will be well to consider what application is to be made of these distinctions to the mind itself, whose form is consciousness. In self-knowing, or consciousness, the subject knows itself—it is its own object. Thus in this phase of activity we have the affirmative Infinite. The subject is its own object—is continued by its other or object. This is merely suggested here—it will be developed hereafter.