Mind, again, as just _a-priori_ principle and basis of all things, is manifestly their universal "Quality." But, as self-reflexive, self-resumptive, it is at once a "_Reality_," a "_Negation_," and a "_Limitation_," which means it is that which, in its double, contraposes one state to another, while, as a whole, it is the limit of both states. It goes without saying that a principle of self-reflex is the "Relation" of its reflexes, and in this relation is a "_Substance_ with _Dependence_," a "_Cause_ with _Effect_," and a "_Reciprocity_" of its separates. This is a very short cut to the Kantian Categories, but sufficient, perhaps, if we bear in mind that, while _implicit_ in the mind of sense, they are reflexes of conscious, not "unconscious" understanding. The synthesis of mind through conceptions proceeds, not by the formation of sense-effects into units of intuition, but by the formation of these already-made units (objects or their properties) into species, genera, and ultimate universals--the pure unity of these groupings, without regard to the things grouped, being just the pure _a priori_ unity of self-conscious awareness. Thus, those ultimate universals, the categories, are objective reproductions of pure conceptive synthesis, without which there could be _no connection of things in thought_--which would amount precisely to no _realised objects_ and no _objective experience_. One of Kant's industrious reviewers, Sir William Hamilton, fancied that Aristotle's categories were "genera of real things," while Kant's categories were "determinations of thought," and, as mere "_entia rationis_," must "be excluded from the Aristotelic list." But there are no "genera of real things" except _as_ "determinations of thought"; and, in making an experimental classification of objects, Aristotle found some of the Kantian categories, because the synthetical unity of mind had put those categories into the objects at the creation of them. To Kant an _object_ meant something of which Sir William Hamilton had no boding. CHAPTER XV. THE GENESIS OF "TRANSCENDENTAL IDEAS." It must now be easy to see that mind, in its general form, is three-in-one--a triad. It is a self-reflexive, self-related unit, of three phases. The first phase is automatic "apprehension." The second is conscious "understanding." The third, which we touch here, is "reason." In reason, mind is still the general cosmic principle of awareness, with the function of synthesis, or conjunction. As intuition, it has perceived things. As conception, it has classified them. As a last synthetical unity of awareness, it must include, or "comprehend" them--must relate them to its conjunctive unity in their full scope, which means simply in the ultimate reflexes, or forms, of its own nature and action. As process, this can only be done by referring all things to pure synthesis, or connective identity, as _final cause_.