Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 6.djvu/374

 358 J. ELLIS MCTAGGAET : HEGEL'S TREATMENT, ETC. gradually becomes less and less. When we first reached Categorical Judgments we had no criterion of the importance of these Judgments. All Categorical Judgments which were true, were on a level. It was left entirely undetermined what things should be grouped with what, because it was left en- tirely undetermined what Universals we should begin by taking as the bases of our fundamental divisions. But we begin to transcend this contingency when we reach the Categorical Laws of Nature. For we know that these are ultimate, and all other Categorical Judgments can be de- duced from them, and this gives us a standard of import- ance. Those relations between Individuals which are indicated by Laws of Nature are the vital and essential re- lations, and a classification is natural and significant in so far as it expresses these. And in the Disjunctive Laws this becomes more explicit. For there we see that the ultimate laws form a regular system, extending over all reality, and accounting, directly or indirectly, for all the qualities of everything. We have thus a complete classification objec- tively existing, and our particular classifications will have value in so far as they approximate to this. Here the Subjective Notion ends. The question which will next arise how are some Individual As determined to be B and not C, and others to be C and not B ? will carry us on to the Objective Notion.