In most men it has merely rudimentary, often even merely nominal existence;[1] they are destined to follow the lead of others, and it is as well not to converse with them more than is necessary.
The true kernel of all knowledge is that reflection which works with the help of intuitive representations ; for it goes back to the fountain-head, to the basis of all conceptions. Therefore it generates all really original thoughts, all primary and fundamental views and all inventions, so far as chance had not the largest share in them. The Understanding prevails in this sort of thinking, whilst the Reason is the chief factor in purely abstract reflection. Certain thoughts which wander about for a long time in our heads, belong to this sort of reflection : thoughts which come and go, now clothed in one kind of intuition, now in another, until they at last become clear, fix themselves in conceptions and find words to express them. Some, indeed, never find words to express them, and these are, unfortunately, the best of all : quœ voce meliora sunt, as Apuleius says.
Aristotle, however, went too far in thinking that no reflection is possible without pictures of the imagination. Nevertheless, what he says on this point,[2] ούδέποτε νοεί ὰνευ φαντάσματος ή ψυχή (anima sine phantasmate nunquam intelligit)[3] and όταν θεωρῆ, ὰνάγκη ὰμα φἁντασμά τι θεωρείν (qui contemplatur, necesse est, una cum phantasmate contempletur),[4] and again, νοἑιν ούκ ἔστι ἀνευ φαντάσατος (fieri non potest, ut sine phantasmate quidquam intelli-
- ↑ Let any one to whom this assertion may appear hyperbolical, consider the fate of Goethe's "Theory of Colours" (Farbenlehre), and should he wonder at my finding a corroboration for it in that fate, he will himself have corroborated it a second time.
- ↑ Aristot. "De anima," iii. c. c. 3, 7, 8.
- ↑ "The mind never thinks without (the aid of) an image." [Tr.]
- ↑ "He who observes anything must observe some image along with it." [Tr.]
