the three laws of thought the first (All A = A) is an identical
proposition--that is to say, a mere word or symbol claiming to be a
proposition: the two others (Nothing can be A and not A, and Everything is
either A or not A) are untrue, because they exclude degrees and also the
mixed modes and double aspects under which truth is so often presented to
us. To assert that man is man is unmeaning; to say that he is free or
necessary and cannot be both is a half truth only. These are a few of the
entanglements which impede the natural course of human thought. Lastly,
there is the fallacy which lies still deeper, of regarding the individual
mind apart from the universal, or either, as a self-existent entity apart
from the ideas which are contained in them.

In ancient philosophies the analysis of the mind is still rudimentary and
imperfect. It naturally began with an effort to disengage the universal
from sense--this was the first lifting up of the mist. It wavered between
object and subject, passing imperceptibly from one or Being to mind and
thought. Appearance in the outward object was for a time indistinguishable
from opinion in the subject. At length mankind spoke of knowing as well as
of opining or perceiving. But when the word 'knowledge' was found how was
it to be explained or defined? It was not an error, it was a step in the
right direction, when Protagoras said that 'Man is the measure of all
things,' and that 'All knowledge is perception.' This was the subjective
which corresponded to the objective 'All is flux.' But the thoughts of men
deepened, and soon they began to be aware that knowledge was neither sense,
nor yet opinion--with or without explanation; nor the expression of
thought, nor the enumeration of parts, nor the addition of characteristic
marks. Motion and rest were equally ill adapted to express its nature,
although both must in some sense be attributed to it; it might be described
more truly as the mind conversing with herself; the discourse of reason;
the hymn of dialectic, the science of relations, of ideas, of the so-called