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84s THE FOURFOLD BOOT. [CHAP. IV.
of the organs of touch and sight, are instances of such
illusions ; likewise the apparently increased size of the
rising moon; the image which forms in the focus of a
concave mirror and exactly resembles a solid body floating
in space ; the painted relievo which we take for real ; the
apparent motion of a shore or bridge
on which we are
standing, if a ship happens to pass along or beneath it ; the
seeming proximity of very lofty mountains, owing
to the
absence of atmospheric perspective, which is the result of
the purity of the air round their summits. In these and
in a multitude of similar cases, our Understanding takes
for granted the existence of the usual cause with which it is
conversant and forthwith perceives it, though
our Reason
has arrived at the truth by a different road; for, the
knowledge of the Understanding being anterior to that of
the Eeason, the intellect remains inaccessible to the teaching
of the Eeason, and thus the illusion that is, the deception of
the Understanding remains immovable ; albeit error that
is, the deception of the Eeason is obviated. That which
is correctly known by the Understanding is reality : that
which is correctly known by the Eeason is truth, or in other
terms, a judgment having a sufficient reason; illusion
(that which is wrongly perceived) we oppose to reality :
error (that which is wrongly thought) to truth.
The purely formal part of empirical perception that is,
Space, Time, and the law of Causality is contained a
priori in the intellect ; but this is not the case with the
application of this formal part to empirical data, which has
to be acquired by the Understanding through practice and
experience. Therefore new-born infants, though they no
doubt receive impressions of light and of colour, still do
not apprehend or indeed, strictly speaking, see objects.
The first weeks of their existence are rather passed in a
kind of stupor, from which they awaken by degrees when
tnair Understanding begins to apply its function to the