be true for all intellect, and not merely for our intellect; and this tendency showed itself unmistakably in the reduction of all sensible phenomena to one sensible principle—to wit, water, or moisture.
But, thirdly, another important feature in the philosophy of Thales, when we look to its general spirit, is its recognition of the necessities of thought. It is founded on necessary thinking. There is, indeed, no necessity for our thinking that water is the unity, the common principle in all things; but there is a necessity for our thinking that there is some unity, some common principle in all things. This is what we cannot help thinking. It is a necessity of reason that we should think some central principle in all that is. There must be an element of agreement in all things. Because, to suppose two things absolutely and in all respects different from each other, would involve the supposition that one of them was a thing and that the other was not a thing at all. But the supposition is that both of them are things, therefore they cannot differ absolutely, but must agree in some respect; and that respect in which they agree is their unity, their common quality, or, as we frequently express it, their universal. That there is a universal, then, a point of unity or agreement in all things, this is a necessary truth of reason. This truth is the basis of all intelligence, and the recognition of it is the basis of all philosophy. What the universal
