Essays in Literature and HistoryFroude, James Anthony
History
Essays in Literature and History
Froude, James Anthony
History; Literature
He means, we suppose, that God's mind only perceives,
or can perceive, things under their Infinite expression,
and that the idea of each several mode, under
whatever attribute, constitutes a separate mind.
We do not know that we can add anything to this
explanation; the difficulty lies in the audacious sweep
of the speculation itself; we will however attempt an
illustration, although we fear it will be to illustrate
obscurum tier obscurius. Let A B C D be four out of
the Infinite number of the Divine attributes. A the
attribute of mind; B the attribute of extension; C and
D other attributes, the nature of which is not known
to us. Now A, as the attribute of mind, is that which
perceives all which takes place under B C and D, but it
is only as it exists in God that it forms the universal
consciousness of an attributes at once. In its modifications
it is combined separately with the modifications of
each, constituting in combination with the modes of
each attribute a separate being. As forming the mind
of B, A perceives what takes place in B, but not what
takes place in C or D. Combined with B, it forms the
soul of the human body, and generally the soul of all
modifications of extended substance; combined with C,
it forms the soul of some other analogous being;
combined with D, again of another; but the combinations
are only in pairs, in which A is constant. A and B
make one being, A and C another, A and D a third;
but B will not combine with C, nor C with D; each
attribute being, as it were, conscious only of itself.
And therefore, although to those modifications of mind
and extension which we call ourselves there are
corresponding modifications under C and D, and generally
under each of the Infinite attributes of God; each of
ourselves being in a sense Infinite, nevertheless we
neither have nor can have any knowledge of ourselves
in this Infinite aspect; our actual consciousness
being limited to the phenomena of sensible experience.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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