Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 1 - Institutes of Metaphysic (1875 ed.).djvu/46

18 its end or object, its business in this world, what it has to do, why it has to do it, and how it does it. These matters, though early in the order of nature, have been late in the order of science. They are the preliminary steps of metaphysic, yet the world has been very slow in finding them out. They are the antediluvian germs, the pre-formations of philosophy, yet they have never been distinctly brought to light. There cannot be a doubt that the mind of Plato was imbued with a profound sense of the object or business of speculative science, that he had a dim intuition of the necessary principles of all reason, and of all existence. But these objects wavered before his view; they refused to form themselves into shape. They rather overshadowed him from behind, with the awe of a brooding and mysterious presence, than rose up in front of him, like a beautiful countenance, whose lineaments were decipherable and clear.

§ 25. Hence philosophy is nowhere a body of intellectual light, a scheme of demonstrated truth, from the beginning to the end. It could not be such, unless philosophy had possessed a distinct perception of what she had to do, and a steady comprehension of the means of doing it. But philosophy could not possess this insight so long as she lived passive and unconscious under the presidency of her own principles, instead of getting the upper hand of