Less  abstractly  stated,  Maine  de  Biran  finds  that  the  principle  :
"  All  that  is  true  of  a  ...  class  is  true  of  all  the  individuals
comprised  in  the  class  ;  relates  only  to  conditional  truth.  For

1  Cf.  Treatise  of  Human  Nature,  Bk.  I,  Pt.  Ill,  §1.
2  Cf.  p.  66.
3  (Euvres  inedites,  Vol.  II,  p.  263.
id.,  Vol.  II,  p.  263.
64  MAINE  DE  BIRAN'S  PHILOSOPHY

classes  are  the  work  of  the  mind."  This  is  the  fact  when  it  is  a
question  of  relations  perceived  between  qualities  which  vary  in  the
individuals  compared.  But  the  case  is  different  when  it  is  a
question  of  universal  ideas  or  essential  attributes,  that  are  always
the  same  in  all  objects  to  which  thought  refers  them,  and  which
are  necessary  conditions  of  all  possible  representation.  Here  we
are  dealing  not  with  a  kind  or  class,  but  with  an  individual.  The
principle  of  the  syllogism  can  then  be  stated  as  follows  :  "  All
that  is  true  of  the  subject  of  a  universal  idea  is  necessarily  and
identically  true  of  the  same  subject  considered  in  any  other  rela-
tion or  combination."  *

Universal  ideas  are  clearly  illustrated  by  the  science  of  mathe-
matics, which,  according  to  Maine  de  Biran,  is  not  a  science  of
conditional  truth,  but  a  science  of  true  relations  that  subsist  be-
tween noumena.  These  relations  remain  always  the  same,  they
are  independent  of  all  variations  of  sensibility,  and  they  would
not  change  by  reason  of  any  difference  in  the  organization  of  the
beings  who  perceive  them.
