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Ramsay - Duality in Polarity of Thought

save in polarity with the idea of the infinite. Victor Cousin, in exhibiting the primary elements of the human consciousness, shows that there are two dualities. Let a man turn his attention in upon himself, he will find, first of all, the me and the not me as a dual conception. Apart from all details of information about the me or the not me, different persons know, some more, some less, about either or about the two, every infant, even in the very first moment of contact, is conscious of the me and the not me as an inevitable dual conception. But both of these are found in the limitation they impose on each other; and lo! there springs up here another idea, the idea of the limited - the finite; but this cannot be conceived apart from the simultaneous conception of the infinite; the finite has no meaning save as the pole or dual of the infinite. Here, then, is duality or polarity among the primary contents of the consciousness. And this but the beginning of the polarity of thought.
     Duality is the law of witness-bearing, and the confirmation of truth; - "If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. There is another that beareth witness of Me." - John v. 31, 32. "At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death." - Deut. xvii, 6. "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy at the mouth of two or three witnesses." - Heb x. 28. "The dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass." - Gen.xli. 32.
     It runs in all the polarities of Nature. Music, as belonging to Nature - as one of the things which the Great Numberer hath created - is under this Law of Duality as well as that of mathematical ratios and other laws. The Law of Duality in music gives the major and minor systems. As the major is derived from certain primes in ratios ascending, and the minor from the same primes in the same ratios descending, they are inversely related; and these diatonic scales have in the responding parts exactly the same quantities. But as multiplying by 3 three times gives the framework of the major system in the ascending genesis, and dividing by 3 three times gives the framework of the minor system in the descending genesis. They are in this view also directly related. The Law of Duality in music emerges into view from the genesis [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 42]

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Created by Dale Pond. Last Modification: Thursday October 15, 2020 05:56:41 MDT by Dale Pond.