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'I partly understand,' he replied; 'you mean that the ideas of

science are superior to the hypothetical, metaphorical

conceptions of geometry and the other arts or sciences, whichever

is to be the name of them; and the latter conceptions you refuse

to make subjects of pure intellect, because they have no first

principle, although when resting on a first principle, they pass

into the higher sphere.' You understand me very well, I said. And

now to those four divisions of knowledge you may assign four

corresponding faculties-pure intelligence to the highest sphere;

active intelligence to the second; to the third, faith; to the

fourth, the perception of shadows-and the clearness of the

several faculties will be in the same ratio as the truth of the

objects to which they are related...