Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 1 - Institutes of Metaphysic (1875 ed.).djvu/533

RhPROP. IX.———— bottom and in the last resort, essentially the same—the same knowable in all essential respects, susceptible though it be of infinite varieties in all its accidental features.

29. Secondly, a rigorous inquisition into the structure of the known and knowable, shows us that oneself must always be a part of everything that is known or knowable. The two constituents, therefore, of every cognition which any intelligence can entertain, are itself and—whatever else the other element may be; for this element being indefinite and inexhaustible, cannot be more specially condescended upon.

30. Thirdly, this analysis necessarily reduces to a mere part of cognition everything which is known along with that definite part called self; because, if this definite element must be known (as it must) along with whatever is known, that which is known along with it cannot be a known or knowable whole; but only a known and knowable part. Thus many things—indeed, everything—which we heretofore regarded as the objects of cognition, turn out, on examination, to be only part-objects of cognition.

31. Fourthly. This analysis further reduces the material universe, whether considered in the