26

Logic II 26

a force. The force is compulsion; and compulsion is hic
et nunc. It is either that or it is no compulsion. Law,
without force to carry it out, would be a court without
a sheriff; and all its dicts would be vaporings. Thus, the
relation of law, as a cause, to the action of force, as its
effect, is final or ideal causation, not efficient causation. The
relation is somewhat similar to that of my pulling
the hair trigger of my rifle; when the cartridge explodes
with a force of its own, and off goes the bullet in blind
obedience to do the perform the special [?] instantaneous
beginning of an act that is is, each instant, compelled
to commence. It is a vehical of compulsion hic et nunc,
receiving and transmitting it; while I [?] receive and
transmit ideal influence, of which I am a vehicle.
When we speak of an "idea", or "notion", or "conception
of the mind", we are most usually thinking, -- or
trying to think, of an idea abstracted from all of