Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 1 - Institutes of Metaphysic (1875 ed.).djvu/541

RhPROP. X.——— this predicate applies to it equally whether we are cognisant of it, or are ignorant of it. If we are cognisant of Absolute Existence, it must be object plus subject, because this, and this alone, is what any intelligence can know. If we are ignorant of Absolute Existence, it must be still object plus subject, because we can be ignorant only of what can be known—and object plus subject is what alone can be known. Thus the concluding truth of the ontology is demonstratively established, and comes out all the same whether we claim a knowledge, or avow an ignorance, of that which truly exists. Thus the ultimate end of the system is compassed,—compassed by legitimate means,—and its crowning pledge triumphantly redeemed.—(See Introduction, § 60.)

2. The solution of the ontological problem affords, moreover, an answer to the ultimate question of philosophy—What is truth?—(See Introduction, § 60.) Whatever absolutely is, is true. The question, therefore, is—But what absolutely is? And the answer, as now declared, is, that object plus subject is what absolutely is—that this, and this alone, truly and really exists. This synthesis, accordingly, is : the Ground—below which there is neither anything nor nothing.

3. The reader who has followed the system up to