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THE
CHAPTEE
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS AND RESULTS.
46. The Systertiatic Order.
order of succession in which I have stated the
various forms of the Principle of Sufficient Eeason in
this treatise, is not systematic ;
it has been chosen for the
sake of greater clearness, in order first to present what is
better known and least presupposes the rest. In this I
have followed Aristotle s rule : rai ^uaflr/o-fwe OVK euro TOV
,
KCU TtJQ TOV Trpdy/LiaTOG apyjig evioTe apKriov, d\\ odev
j-ddot (et doctrina non a primo, ac reiprincipio ali-
quando inchoanda est, sed unde quis facilius discat). 1
But
the systematic order in which the different classes of reasons
ought to follow one another is the following.
First of all
should come The Principle of Sufficient Eeason of Being ;
and in this again first its application to Time, as being the
simple schema containing only what is essential in all the
other forms of the Principle of Sufficient Eeason, nay, as
being the prototype of all finitude. The Eeason of Being
in Space having next been stated, the Law of Causality
would then follow after which would come the Law of
;
Motives, and last of all the Principle of Sufficient Eeason
of Knowing ; for the other classes of reasons refer to imme-
1 Aristot. "Metaph." iv. 1. "Sometimes too, learning must start,
not from what is really first and with the actual beginning of the thing
concerned, but from where it is easiest to learn." [Tr. s add.]
N