e and subject to change; the former apprehended by the reason, the
latter perceived by sense. For each of these there must be a principle,
subject, or substratum--a principle or subject-matter, which is the
ground or condition of the sensible world, and a principle or substance,
which is the ground and reason of the intelligible world or world of
ideas. The subject-matter, or ground of the sensible world, is "the
receptacle" and "nurse" of forms, an "invisible species and formless
receiver (which is not earth, or air, or fire, or water) which receives
the immanence of the intelligible."[896] The subject or ground of the
intelligible world is that in which ideal forms, or eternal archetypes
inhere, and which impresses form upon the transitional element, and
fashions the world after its own eternal models. This eternal and
immutable substance is God, who created the universe as a copy of the
eternal archetypes--the everlasting thoughts which dwell in his infinite
mind.

[Footnote 896: "Timaeus," ch. xxiv.]

These copies of the eternal archetypes or models are perceived by the
reason of man in virtue of its participation in the Ultimate Reason. The
reason of man is the organ of truth; by an innate and inalienable right,
it grasps unseen and eternal realities. The essence of the soul is akin
to that which is real, permanent, and eternal;--_It is the offspring and
image of God_; therefore it has a true communion with the realities of
things, by virtue of this kindred and homogeneous nature. It can,
therefore, ascend from the universal and necessary ideas, which are
apprehended by the reason, to the absolute and supreme Idea, which is
the attribute and perfection of God. When the human mind has
contemplated any object of beauty, any fact of order, proportion,
harmony, and excellency, it may rise to the notion of a quality common
to all objects of beauty--from a single beautiful body to two, from two
to all others; from beautiful bodies to beautiful sentiments, from
beautiful sentiments to beautiful thoughts, until, from thought to
thought, we arrive at the highest thought, which has no other object
than the perfect, absolute, _Divine Beauty_.[897] When a man has, from
the contemplation of instances of virtue, risen to the notion of a
quality common to all these instances, this quality becomes the
representative of an ineffable something which, in the sphere of
immutable reality, answers to the conception in his soul. "At the