to
study.

Furthermore, every term which dialectic uses is originally given
embodied; in other words, it is given as an element in the actual flux,
it conies by illustration. Though meaning is the object of an ideal
function, and signification is inwardly appreciable only in terms of
signification, yet the ideal leap is made from a material datum: that in
which signification is seen is a fact. Or to state the matter somewhat
differently, truth is not self-generating; if it were it would be a
falsehood.

Its eternity, and the infinitude of propositions it contains, remain
potential and unapproachable until their incidence is found in
existence. Form cannot of itself decide which of all possible forms
shall be real; in their ideality, and without reference to their
illustration in things, all consistent propositions would be equally
valid and equally trivial. Important truth is truth about something, not
truth about truth; and although a single datum might suffice to give
foothold and pertinence to an infinity of truths, as one atom would
posit all geometry, geometry, if there were no space, would be, if I may
say so, all of the fourth dimension, and arithmetic, if there were no
pulses or chasms in being, would be all algebra. Truth depends upon
facts for its perspective, since facts select truths and decide which
truths shall be mere possibilities and which shall be the eternal forms
of actual things. The dialectical world would be a trackless desert if
the existent world had no arbitrary constitution. Living dialectic comes
to clarify existence; it turns into meanings the actual forms of things
by reflecting upon them, and by making them intended subjects of
discourse.

[Sidenote: Their co-operation.]

Dialectic and physics, thus united at their basis, meet again in their
results. In mechanical science, which is the best part of physics,
mathematics, which is the best part of dialectic, plays a predominant
role; it furnishes the whole method of understanding wherever there is
any real understanding at all. In psychology and history, too, although
dialectic is soon choked by the cross-currents of nature, it furnishes
the little perspicuousness which there is. We understand actions and
mental developments when the purposes or ideas contained in any stage
are carried out logically in the sequel; it is when conduct and growth
are rational, that is, when they are dialectical, that we think we have
found the true secret