Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 1 - Institutes of Metaphysic (1875 ed.).djvu/296

268PROP. X.———— it by apprehending the two elements together—the elements, namely, which had been supplied by the senses, and that additional contribution, whatever it was, which intellect had furnished. By this process, which cannot be directly observed while in operation, but only recovered by means of philosophical reflection, the nonsensical things of sense become the intelligible things of intellect. The material universe assumes the finished character which it presents to the intelligence of all mankind; it ceases to be incompleted, incomprehensible, and absurd. The senses, however, have still no dealings with this universe, in so far as it is known or cogitable, but only in so far as it is unintelligible and contradictory. That is particularly to be borne in mind as the very soul of these old philosophies. The senses cannot, even in the smallest degree, execute the office of intellect; they are occupied only with unmitigated nonsense. Consequently, they can have no share either in redeeming this contradictory—that is, in rendering it intelligible—or in intelligently cognising it when redeemed. Their sole function is to bring it before the intellect, which, however, cannot apprehend it unless it apprehend something else (, according to the old systems; or itself, according to these Institutes) as well.

13. The following illustration will explain this