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been made the basis of such multitudes of predictions, all of which have been fulfilled to the letter, that no doubt can remain that here is something of the nature of a general formula to the sense of which lifeless matter really does and will conform.
So then, some general formulae are mere artificial expressions of coincidences that have happened, while some express really operative laws.
The sense of a general formula cannot exist not act.
It is not of it nature to do so; because all that exists or acts in every possible respect entirely determinate; every predicate is either true or false of it while a general formula is only determinate in one or two respects.
To be sure, the difference is only one of quantity of how much the determination is, it is however a difference of of infiniyer quantity.
I shall recur to that point in another lecture.
Although the sense of a general formula cannot exist, it can be thought and reasoned about.
Indeed, it is the only sort of thing that can be reasoned or thought about.
A sensation entering the mind sets thoughts in motion.
How can it be do?
The sessation is not general.
We can trace back our thought towards the sensation, until they became expanded and indistinct.