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A Third has a mode of being which consists
in the Secondnesses that it determines, the mode
of being of a Law, or Concept. Do not confound
this with the ideal being of a quality in itself.
A quality is something capable of being completely embodied.
A Law never can be embodied in its character as a law except by determining a habit. A quality
is how something may or might have been.
A law is how an endless future must continue
to be. Now in Genuine Thirdness, the First, the Second,
and the Third are all three of the nature of thirds, or
Thought, while in respect to one another they
are First, Second, and Third. The First is Thought
in its capacity as mere Possibility; that is, mere
Mind capable of thought thinking, or a mere vague idea.
The Second is Thought playing the rôle of a Secondness,