Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 1 - Institutes of Metaphysic (1875 ed.).djvu/358

330PROP. XVI.———— is, without announcing what it is. This vagueness of statement must communicate a corresponding vagueness of thought to the reader's mind; and he may be uncertain whether he has apprehended the whole meaning of the proposition. He has apprehended its full meaning if he will take it literally as it stands, and be pleased to wait for further light as to what the substantial in cognition is until he comes to Proposition XVII.

3. The theory of knowing would be very incomplete unless it embraced an explanation of certain words in connection with which the utmost laxity of thought has at all times prevailed, and around which the most confused and fruitless controversies have perpetually revolved. Such words are "substance," "phenomenon," "the absolute," "the relative." The loose and erroneous thinking which is attached to these terms, both in the popular mind and in psychological science, is what lies beyond all the powers of description to exaggerate. Definite articles, therefore, settling their meaning exactly, are quite indispensable in a work which professes to lay down the institutes of all metaphysical thinking, and to supply the standards by a reference to which all vagrant cogitation may be at once pulled up, and all controversies cut short. These articles, moreover, are necessary steps in the inquiry, because its ultimate aim is to ascertain whether, and how far,