I never said that the _vox populi_ was of course the _vox Dei_. It may be;
but it may be, and with equal probability, _a priori_, _vox Diaboli_. That
the voice of ten millions of men calling for the same thing is a spirit, I
believe; but whether that be a spirit of Heaven or Hell, I can only know by
trying the thing called for by the prescript of reason and God's will.
* * * * *
Black is the negation of colour in its greatest energy. Without lustre, it
indicates or represents vacuity, as, for instance, in the dark mouth of a
cavern; add lustre, and it will represent the highest degree of solidity,
as in a polished ebony box.
* * * * *
In finite forms there is no real and absolute identity. God alone is
identity. In the former, the prothesis is a bastard prothesis, a _quasi_
identity only.
April 30. 1832.