CONTENTS.

The following papers have been arranged without any reference to the different periods of time in which they were written, but as they might best serve to introduce, illustrate, or complete each other.

The Spiritual in the Material (A Conversation) . pp. 1—27

Two views of the world—the one proceeding from the consideration of the Spiritual, the other from that of the Material—must be reconciled.
What we know most immediately of bodies is that they appear as spaces, capable of producing effects.
The Material, as such, is subject to incessant change.
We may first of all assert that the Invariable, which exists in the changes of bodies, is the Unity of Thought which we meet there.
This Unity of Thought, however, does not belong to us, but to Nature; for the laws of Nature are constant and are at the same time laws of Reason.
Yet these laws do not proceed from our human Reason, but from that Reason which prevails throughout the universe.
May not this opinion of the general validity of Reason have originated from the essential peculiarity of our own minds?
Refutation of this doubt.
Different remarks upon questions to be afterward explained.
A representation of the Variable further developed, and the importance of seeking for the Invariable in it.
The essence of a thing is determined by the combination of those laws according to which all effects in it occur. These laws are properly called the Thoughts of Nature.