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FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT
spread over an extended compound object, mental synthesis could not be attained. In order that logical inference be drawn from a given set of premises, the one and the same mind, which must be indivisible and uncompound, will have to be seized of them and of their implications and contents. If the contents of the premises are distributed over different parts of a compound being, no part will be possessed of the whole syllogism, and a deduction will be an inconceivable process. Our consciousness which actually draws a logical deduction must, then, be a simple substance, or the function of a simple substance.
The mind that knows abstract ideas, like goodness, love and truth, must likewise be an indivisible thing. For abstract ideas cannot be broken into parts or spread over an extended compound surface.
Simple things cannot be created or produced from nothing, nor manufactured from different elements. They contain no parts or separable elements, and cannot be destroyed or broken up into fragments and bits in any way.
What cannot be created and destroyed must be eternal! The mind, then, is an eternal existence.
Nothing that exists can exist, or be the abode of qualities, independently of a substantive basis. The mind, too, must, therefore, be a substance.
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