APHORISMS CONCERNING IDEAS DERIVED FROM THE HISTORY OF IDEAS.
I.
MAN is the Interpreter of Nature, Science the right interpretation. (History of Scientific Ideas: Book i. Chapter 1.)
II.
The Senses place before us the Characters of the Book of Nature; but these convey no knowledge to us, till we have discovered the Alphabet by which they are to be read. (Ibid. i. 2.)
III.
The Alphabet, by means of which we interpret Phenomena, consists of the Ideas existing in our own minds; for these give to the phenomena that coherence and significance which is not an object of sense. (i. 2.)
IV.
The antithesis of Sense and Ideas is the foundation of the Philosophy of Science. No knowledge can exist without the union, no philosophy without the separation, of these two elements. (i. 2.) 6