REMARKS ON THE REAL FOUNDATION OF PURE POSSIBILITY.
162. Since the argument proving the necessity of a being in which is
laid the foundation of all the relations in the possible order, is one
of the most transcendental in all metaphysics, and at the same time one
of the most difficult to be perfectly understood, we judge it advisable
to enlarge somewhat upon the considerations thrown out in the preceding
chapter.
An example, in which we undertake to establish the possibility of
things, independently of a being in which is found the reason of all,
will serve our purpose better than abstract reflections.
163. "Two circles of equal diameters are equal." This proposition is
evidently true. Let us analyze its meaning. The proposition refers
to the possible order, and abstracts absolutely the existence of the
circles and of the diameters. No case is excepted; all are comprised in
the proposition.
164. Neither does the truth refer to our mode of understanding; but on
the contrary, we conceive it as independent of our thought. Were we
asked, what would become of this truth were we not to exist, we should
without hesitation reply that it would be the same, that it acquired
nothing by our existence, that it would lose nothing by our extinction.
If we believed this truth to depend in any way upon us, it would cease
to be what it is, it would no longer be a necessary but a contingent
truth.
165. Nor is the corporeal world indispensable to the truth and
necessity of the proposition: on the contrary, if we suppose no body
to exist, the proposition would lose none of its truth, necessity, or
universality.
166. What would happen, if, withdrawing all bodies, all sensible
representations, and even all intelligences, we should imagine absolute
and universal nothing? We see the truth of the proposition even on this
supposition; for it is impossible for us to hold it to be false. On
every supposition, our understanding sees a connection which it cannot
destroy: the condition once established, the result will infallibly
follow.
167. An absolutely necessary connection, founded neither on us, nor
on the external world, which exists before any thing we can imagine,
and subsists after we have annihilated all by an effort of our
understanding, must be based upon something, it cannot have nothing for
its origin: to say this, would be to assert a necessary fact without a
sufficient reason.
168. It is true that in the proposition now before us, nothing real is
affirmed; but if we reflect carefully, we find even here the greatest
difficulty for those who deny a real foundation to pure possibility.
What is remarkable in this phenomenon, is precisely this, that our
understanding feels itself forced to give its assent to a proposition
which affirms an absolutely necessary connection without any relation
to an existing object. It is conceivable that an intelligence affected
by other beings may know their nature and relations; but it is not so
easy of comprehension how it can discover their nature and relations in
an absolutely necessary manner, when it abstracts all existence, when
the ground upon which the eyes of the understanding are fixed, is the
abyss of nothing.
169. We deceive ourselves when we imagine it possible to abstract
all existence. Even when we suppose our mind to have lost sight of
every thing, a very easy supposition, granting that we find in our
consciousness the contingency of our being, the understanding still
perceives a possible order, and imagines it to be all occupied with
pure possibility, independent of a being on which it is based. We
repeat, that this is an illusion, which disappears so soon as we
reflect upon it. In pure nothing, nothing is possible; there are
no relations, no connections of any kind; in nothing there are no
combinations, it is a ground upon which nothing can be pictured.
170. The objectivity of our ideas and the perception of necessary
relations in a possible order, reveal a communication of our
understanding with a being on which is founded all possibility. This
possibility can be explained on no supposition except that which makes
the communication consist in the action of God giving to our mind
faculties perceptive of the necessary relation of certain ideas, based
upon necessary being, and representative of his infinite essence.
171. Without this communication the order of pure possibility means
nothing: none of the combinations referable to it contain any truth:
and this ruins all science. There can be no necessary relations if
there be no necessity upon which they are based, and where they are
represented; if this condition be wanting, all cognitions must refer to
something actually existing; they are even limited to what _appears_,
to what affects us, and they cannot affirm any thing beyond the actual
order. Science, in this supposition, is unworthy of the name; it is
nothing but a collection of facts, gathered together in the field of
experience; we cannot say: "This will be, or will not be; this may be,
or may not be;" we are necessarily limited to what is; or, rather,
we ought to confine ourselves to that which affects us by simple
appearances, and never be able to rise above the sphere of individual
phenomena.