I hold it in my hand, which determines its place in space; for the reaction of my hand counteracts the action of gravity. This terminates the operations of the third constitutive TRIAD.

Now, then, we have absolutely constructed a rose from given Sensations, merely, though unconsciously, by the operation of these Nine active powers. This process will be best proved by analysing any — nay, every object of nature, for we definitively pronounce that not to be an object of nature which does not consist of the joint produce of these nine constitutive powers. Try the human Soul, for instance; though its existence never can be doubted, yet it will not rank under the "CATEGORIES." Hence it is no object of material nature in TIME, but a pure, perfect, and immaterial Spirit residing in ETERNITY.

Transcendentally, we have constructed the rose from given Sensations, and thus constituted it one of the objects of nature. There is still another operation to be performed, that is, to determine how the rose belongs to nature. Objects may form part of nature, like the inhabitants of the moon, without our knowing whether they exist or not. But, as the thought contains no contradiction, it proves its possibility. With regard to our rose, the case is very clear; for, as we

hold it in the hand, that proves its actual existence. Nothing, however, can exist which is not possible; neither can it do otherwise than exist while it is present; and this proves its necessity. This final determination of the mode of existence of objects of nature is the last operation of the last TRIAD of UNDERSTANDING.

What SENSE and UNDERSTANDING have done in the construction of material nature, REASON accomplishes with regard to immaterial nature, that is, the Kingdom of Spirits. Here, however, a most striking difference must be remarked. SENSE receives the given matter— Sensation from a CAUSE

noumenon totally distinct from the mind, to which Sensation it communicates the properties of Extension and Succession, and, by a spontaneous act, concocts this given matter into INTUITION. This intuition remains an unintelligible object, till UNDERSTANDING exerts its spontaneous activity, and arranges this given matter under its twelve CATEGORIES; thus, not only giving it an intelligible form, but actually, by this mental process, constituting it one of the objects of material nature.

In this manner NATURE is produced.

With REASON the case is, indeed, very different. This pure Faculty has no occasion to wait till it is propelled

into action from without, for all its resources lie already within the mind. It need, therefore, merely exert its own pure, spontaneous activity to produce all its ideas. What, then, are these pure materials out of which REASON Constructs its ideas? When we are told that

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they are the "CATEGORIES which we already know to be perfectly pure principles, for they are the very constituent essences of the UNDERSTANDING · we need no longer wonder at the exquisite purity and perfection of "PRACTICAL REASON."-That the ideas formed by REASON may be pure, the materials of which they are composed must also be absolutely pure. But, as the purity of the Categories cannot be doubted, neither can the compounds of REASON-its IDEASbe for one instant doubted. It is a most interesting occupation to trace the generation of these ideas from their pure sources, and all this without requiring any foreign aid. This process must then be as pure as the results, and carry with it the utmost CONVICTION of which the mind of man is susceptible, far surpassing the accuracy of mathematical conclusions, which involve TIME and SPACE; while these pure conclusions of PRACTICAL REASON quit the field of the FINITE, and construct their own pure principles, which are wholly

mental, that is, perfectly "spiritual," and reside in the territory of the INFINITE alone. These laws, being once awakened in the mind, are now and ever will be, what they ever have been, perfectly pure, that is, “divine;” in fact they are emanations from the Deity, laws or, as we express it, the "WORD OF GOD" which must be obeyed in spite of all the alluring seductions of SENSE. The following table will display at one view this very important procedure of that high gift of the Almighty-" REASON.”

IDEAS OF REASON,

REASON Constructs the ideas of the Spiritual world in the same manner that UNDERSTANDING constructs the intuitions of the Material world. The ideas of REASON, being wholly free from TIME and SPACE, can reside only in ETERNITY. Well, then, may PRACTICAL REASON be the author of the Moral Law, and all reasonable beings bound to obey its dictates, since it is the law of REASON itself. The ideas of REASON are the very roots from which all our notions of spiritual objects arise, and without which no such thoughts could enter the mind. They are indigenous in the soil of intellect. Hence the conclusions of REASON must be absolutely commanding for all rational beings. Thus REASON generates the ideas of the "Kingdom of Spirits" from spiritual matter already lying in the mind, and which constitutes its very elements. But what can be more spiritual than the ideas which REASON Constructs from these spiritual essences!

As neither intuitions nor ideas could possibly exist without the matter of which they are composed being

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