The strength of real assents in comparison to notional ones is shown, and the difference in this point of view between assent and inference; the latter being clearest in purely abstract matters.
Newman's statement respecting real and notional assents be correct or not, every candid and honest man will acknowledge that he does assent with certitude to the truth of those things which the author calls notions.
Thus also when notionalassents become real, as they may in consequence of some special circumstances, their hold upon the mind and control upon action is much increased.
Without this character the act is not assent at all, or at least is only that notional form of it called by the author opinion, which he defines as assent to the probable truth of a proposition.
Perhaps, in great part, through words which are but the shadows of notions; even as the notional understanding itself is but the shadowy abstraction of living and actual truth.
This transformation of a notional into a real belief has proved the crisis in the lives of many of the saints and mystics of Islam, without, as far as it appears, any contact on their part with Christianity.
Two points only are all-important, first to see the necessity of each of the notional factors, and secondly the form in which it is actualised.
To compare the Platonic standpoint in all its definiteness with the point of view from which the relationship of state and religion is here regarded, the notional differences on which everything turns must be recalled to mind.
As will, the mind steps into actuality; whereas as cognition it is on the soil ofnotional generality.
The postfixes themselves no doubt were originally notional terms worn down in form and meaning, so as to express mere abstract relation, as in the Magyar vel = with, from veli = companion.
Given to foolish or visionary expectations; whimsical; fanciful; as, a notional man.
His advice is very good; but the bulbs we are to talk about are like those notional children whom he mentions and they do not want tallow candles for any part of their meal.
There is also considerable rubbish of the builders left scattered about, such as brick-bats, chips of stone, and the like, that go to make the place an uncomfortable one for notional plants.
Some, like thistles or mullein or ragweed, will thrive on almost any soil and are no more exacting as to food than a goat or a mule; but other plants are as notional as children reared in the lap of luxury.
Yet so far is this principle from being only notional or abstract, it has presented us with a key which fits into the intricate wards of the heavens, and has laid bare to our gaze the principal mechanism of the universe.
The Holy Spirit sanctifieth all that notional knowledge which men had before their renovation.
These are the General, Abstract, and Notional ideas of Locke, or the Concepts just mentioned in the last paragraph.
Let us do what lieth in us to convince our Atheists, that the religion of the blessed Jesus, is no trick or device; and our wanton and loose Christians, that it is no notional business, or speculative science.
A striking instance of this has been adduced in the difference between the notional ONE of the Ontologists, and the idea of the Living God.
Much may be said upon this point," said Don Quixote; "Heaven knows whether there be a Dulcinea in the world or not, and whether she be a notional creature or not.
But this, though highly useful, is a mere abstraction or notional distinction.
The physical philosopher studies not merely the Matter, but the Form or notional Essence even more (a.
He brings out, in peculiar but forcible terms, the idea of "notional causality" which underlies Aristotle's Logic.
The Form stands first, the Matter second,--not in time, but in notional presentation.
We come to sermon to hear some new thing, or new truth, or new fashion of it; to learn a notional experience of cases.
Now a simple assent need not be notional; but the reflex or confirmatory assent of certitude always is given to a notional proposition, viz.
Assent, upon the authority of others is often, as I have noticed, when speaking of notional assents, little more than a profession or acquiescence or inference, not a real acceptance of a proposition.
Theology, properly and directly, deals with notional apprehension; religion with imaginative.
As far as these particular subjects can be viewed in the concrete and represent experiences, they can be received by real assent also; but as expressed in general propositions they belong to notional apprehension and assent.
That mystery also is of course the object of assent, but it is the notional object; and when presented to religious minds, it is received by them notionally; and again implicitly, viz.
The manner in which the old hides have really fallen to pieces but are preserving a notional existence is well illustrated by Domesday of St. Paul's, 41-47.
This 'notional movability' of land, if we may use such a term, will become of importance to us when we are studying the formation of manors.
Owing to what we have called the 'notional movability' of land, we never can be quite sure that when certain hides or acres are said to be in or lie in a certain place they are really and physically in that place.
For, in fact, so long as man, holding it to be a pure ideal, regards it as nothing but a thought or notional relation, he can not but fail to seize and apprehend this mystery of love in all its living reality.
It started by merely burning; but, as I have already said about dynamite, it is notional stuff.
Sometimes, dynamite will work all right for such a purpose, but it is notional stuff and can not be depended upon merely to burn.
But to love is taken not only essentially, but also in a notional sense; and in this way, we can say that the Father and the Son love each other by the Holy Ghost, as was above explained.
But when the term Love is taken in a notional sense it means nothing else than "to spirate love"; just as to speak is to produce a word, and to flower is to produce flowers.
But notional and personal adjectives cannot be predicated of the essence unless we add some substantive.
Objection 1: It would seem that a notional act can be directed to several Persons, so that there may be several Persons begotten or spirated in God.
By a real distinction, God by His essence is distinct from those things of which He is the principle by creation: just as one person is distinct from the other of which He is principle by a notional act.
Therefore, in addition to these, notional acts are not to be attributed to the persons.
Objection 1: It would seem that the notional acts are not to be attributed to the persons.
Whether in God there exists a power as regards thenotional acts?
I answer that, As the notional acts exist in God, so must there be also a power in God regarding these acts; since power only means the principle of act.
Likewise to love, taken in a notional sense, means to produce love; and so it can be said that the Father loves the Son by the Holy Ghost, as by the person proceeding, and by Love itself as a notional act.
