outlined or represented in the memory or the imagination by any
figures or images, and are, therefore, the objects of purely rational
conception. He found, also, that we arrive at one class of cognitions
"_mediately_" through images generated in the vital organism, or by some
testimony, definition, or explication of others; whilst we arrive at the
other class "_immediately_" by simple intuition, or rational
apperception. The mind stands face to face with the object, and gazes
directly upon it. The reality of that object is revealed in its own
light, and we find it impossible to refuse our assent--that is, it is
_self-evident_. One class consisted of _contingent_ ideas--that is,
their objects are conceived as existing, with the possibility, without
any contradiction, of conceiving of their non-existence; the other
consisted of _necessary_ ideas--their objects are conceived as existing
with the absolute impossibility of conceiving of their non-existence.
Thus we can conceive of this book, this table, this earth, as not
existing, but we can not conceive the non-existence of space. We can
conceive of succession in time as not existing, but we can not, in
thought, annihilate duration. We can imagine this or that particular
thing not to have been, but we can not conceive of the extinction of
Being in itself. He further observed, that one class of our cognitions
are _conditional_ ideas; the existence of their objects is conceived
only on the supposition of some antecedent existence, as for example,
the idea of qualities, phenomena, events; whilst the other class of
cognitions are _unconditional_ and _absolute_--we can conceive of their
objects as existing independently and unconditionally--existing whether
any thing else does or does not exist, as space, duration, the infinite,
Being _in se_. And, finally, whilst some ideas appear in us as
_particular_ and _individual_, determined and modified by our own
personality and liberty, there are others which are, in the fullest
sense, _universal_. They are not the creations of our own minds, and
they can not be changed by our own volitions. They depend upon neither
times, nor places, nor circumstances; they are common to all minds, in
all times, and in all places. These ideas are the witnesses in our
inmost being that there is something beyond us, and above us; and beyond
and above all the contingent and fugitive phenomena around us. Beneath
all changes there is a _permanent_ being. Be