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or in any way existentially brought together. We mean
by a collection merely a plural, whose objects are
collected together by thought. The collection exists
just as much as its members. Their existence is its existence.
Yet in another point of view it is
the creation of thought. It is an ens rationis.
An ens rationis may be defined as a subject
whose being consists in a fact a Secondness,
or fact, concerning something else. Its
being is thus of the nature of Thirdness, or
thought. Any abstraction, such as Truth
and Justice, is an ens rationis. That does
not prevent truth and Justice from being
real powers in the world without any
figure of speech. They are powers, just
as much, and in the same way, as I
am a power if I can open my