He recognized the possibility of a spiritual world, a world of ideas.

If ideas are of man's creation, if they subsist in a life of their own, they must have forms which our external senses cannot grasp, but which are perceptible to our inward senses when brought under certain conditions.

Thus your godfather's ideas might so enfold you that you would clothe them with his bodily presence.

Then, if Minoret really committed those actions, they too resolve themselves into ideas; for all action is the result of many ideas.

Now, if ideas live and move in a spiritual world, your spirit must be able to perceive them if it penetrates that world.