Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 1 - Institutes of Metaphysic (1875 ed.).djvu/300

272PROP. X.———— none, although no opinion is here offered on this point), in that case, with all their senses, they are mere incarnate absurdities, gazing upon unredeemed contradiction.

16. The old philosophers experienced more difficulty in determining the character of the other mental factor—the office, namely, of intellect as contrasted with sense—and in explaining the nature of the intellectual element which changes chaos into cosmos, the supplement which converts a world rolling in contradictory nonsense (the whole material universe per se) into a world radiant with beauty, order, and intelligence. According to Pythagoras, this conversion was effected by means of "numbers," a pure contribution of intellect. According to Plato, it was effected by means of "ideas." According to these Institutes, it is accomplished by the me being always of necessity apprehended along with whatever is apprehended. This is the light of chaos, the harmoniser of contradictory discord—the orderer of unutterable disorder—the source both of unity and plurality—the only transmuter of senselessness into sense. The three systems agree in this respect, that the intellectual element is a "universal;" and that the sensible element is a "singular" or "particular"—only