Pagina 221 de 1391

And by faculties I mean powers unseen and distinguishable only by

the difference in their objects, as opinion and knowledge differ,

since the one is liable to err, but the other is unerring and is

the mightiest of all our faculties. If being is the object of

knowledge, and not-being of ignorance, and these are the

extremes, opinion must lie between them, and may be called darker

than the one and brighter than the other. This intermediate or

contingent matter is and is not at the same time, and partakes

both of existence and of non-existence. Now I would ask my good

friend, who denies abstract beauty and justice, and affirms a

many beautiful and a many just, whether everything he sees is not

in some point of view different-the beautiful ugly, the pious

impious, the just unjust? Is not the double also the half, and

are not heavy and light relative terms which pass into one

another?