Chapter 26

The cosmological laws proper to the rational principle in general —
Two species of cosmological laws, 'laws of motion' and
laws which determine the rational principle's 'quality of movement'

1504. In expounding the psychological laws proper to the rational principle, I had to intermingle them with that which the world administers to the spirit because the movement of second acts is given to the spirit only by the action of the world.
We have to distinguish, therefore, between laws governing the movement of an already constituted rational principle, which I shall call laws of motion, and laws determining the mode governing that movement, which we can call laws of quality of movement.

1505. The laws of motion are cosmological, that is, imposed on the spirit by the action of contingent entities.
The laws of quality of movement are in part cosmological and in part psychological.

1506. We can, therefore, reduce all cosmological laws to two supreme laws, one of which I shall call the law of motion, because it expresses the dependence of acts of the spirit on the stimulating action of the world; the other I shall call the law of aesthetic harmony, because it expresses the quality and mode proper to the movement of the spirit and of second acts. This movement has been determined by the harmony in the world pre-established by the Creator so that a corresponding harmony might enter the spirit as it develops its activity.