Let me now try to gather up all these odds and ends of commentary and
restate the law of mind, in a unitary way.
First, then, we find that when we regard ideas from a nominalistic,
individualistic, sensualistic way, the simplest facts of mind become
utterly meaningless. That one idea should resemble another or influence
another, or that one state of mind should so much as be thought of in
another is, from that standpoint, sheer nonsense.
Second, by this and other means we are driven to perceive, what is
quite evident of itself, that instantaneous feelings flow together into
a continuum of feeling, which has in a modified degree the peculiar
vivacity of feeling and has gained generality. And in reference to such
general ideas, or continua of feeling, the difficulties about resemblance
and suggestion and reference to the external, cease to have any force.
Third, these general ideas are not mere words, nor do they consist in
this, that certain concrete facts will every time happen under certain
descriptions of conditions; but they are just as much, or rather far
more, living realities than the feelings themselves out of which they
are concreted. And to say that mental phenomena are governed by law does
not mean merely that they are describable by a general formula; but that
there is a living idea, a conscious continuum of feeling, which pervades
them, and to which they are docile.
Fourth, this supreme law, which is the celestial and living harmony,
does not so much as demand that the special ideas shall surrender
their peculiar arbitrariness and caprice entirely; for that would be
self-destructive. It only requires that they shall influence and be
influenced by one another.
Fifth, in what measure this unification acts, seems to be regulated only
by special rules; or, at least, we cannot in our present knowledge
say how far it goes. But it may be said that, judging by appearances,
the amount of arbitrariness in the phenomena of human minds is neither
altogether trifling nor very prominent.