33

Logic II 33

them powerful. They will say that if [?????] free-masonry or its
foe, the Papacy, ever [did?] pass away, -- as perhaps either
may, -- it will be precisely because they are ideas devoid
of eternal inherent, incorruptible vitality, and not at all
[for?] because they have it been unsupplied with stalwart
defenders. Thus, whether you accept the opinion or not,
you must see that it is a perfectly intelligible opinion
that ideas are not all mere creations of this or that
mind, but on the contrary have a power of finding or
creating their vehicles, and having found them, or conferring
upon them the ability to transform the face of
the earth. If you ask what mode of being is supposed
to belong to an idea that is in no mind, the reply will
come be that undoubtedly the idea must be embodied (or
ensouled; it is all one) in order to attain complete being,
and that if, at any moment, it should happen that an
idea, -- say that of physical decency, -- was quite uncon-