Reason

In the best philosophical use of English words, “reasoning” is a well-known operation of a mind, and “reasoning power” (or, less well, “reason”) is the faculty of performing it. “The Reason” is a totally distinct faculty by which we are supposed to know the truth of first principles. “Reason” means nothing more nor less than conformity to the best result of deliberation.

The very being of the General, of Reason, consists in its governing individual events. So, then, the essence of Reason is such that its being never can have been completely perfected. It always must be in a state of incipiency, of growth.