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SECOND CLASS OF OBJECTS FOE THE SUBJECT. 123
made a strong impression upon the thinkers of the
gatur), 1
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, who therefore frequently
and emphatically repeat what he says. Pico della Mirandola, 3
for instance, says : Necesse est, eum, quiratiocinaturetintelligit,
pJiantasmata speculari; Melanchthon 3
says : Oportet intel-
and Jord. Brunus 4
ligentem phantasmata speculari;
says,
dicit Aristoteles: oportet scire volentem, phantasmata speculari.
Poniponatius 5
expresses himself in the same sense. On
the whole, all that can be affirmed is, that every true and
primary notion, every genuine philosophic theorem even,
must have some sort of intuitive view for its innermost
kernel or root. This, though something momentary 6
and
single, subsequently imparts life and spirit to the whole
analysis, however exhaustive it may be, just as one drop
of the right reagent suffices to tinge a whole solution
with the colour of the precipitate which it causes. When
an analysis has a kernel of this sort,
it is like a bank note
issued by a firm which has ready money wherewith to back
it ; whereas every other analysis proceeding from mere
combinations of abstract conceptions, resembles a bank
note which is issued by a firm which has nothing but other
to back it with. All mere rational talk
paper obligations
thus renders the result of given conceptions clearer, but
does not, strictly speaking, bring anything new to light.
It might therefore be left to each individual to do himself,
instead of filling whole volumes every day.
29. Principle of Sufficient Reason of Knowing.
But, even in a narrower sense, thinking does not consist
in the bare presence of abstract conceptions in our con-
1 " De Memoria," c. 1 :
"
It is impossible to think without (the aid
of) an 2 <
image."
De imaginatione,"
c. 5.
8 " De 4 ts
anima," p. 130.
De compositione imaginum," p. 10.
6 " De immortalitate," pp. 54 et 70.
8 "
Ein Momentancs mid Einheitliches."