Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 1 - Institutes of Metaphysic (1875 ed.).djvu/542

514PROP. X.——————— this point, should now be at no loss to understand how the synthesis of the particular and the universal is alone entitled to the name of "the Existent." This doctrine, or at least an approximation to it, was the burthen of the philosophy of antiquity—the truth mainly insisted on by the early Greek speculators. But the doctrine at that time, and as they expounded it, was of necessity unintelligible. None of them knew, or at any rate none of them said, what the universal was which entered into the synthesis of Existence. None of them named it. Hence their statement made no impression on the popular mind, and it has remained an enigma to all succeeding generations. No one could understand why the particular (that is, material things by themselves) was denied to be truly existent. But these Institutes have now distinctly shown what this universal is, and the darkness is dissipated—the ancient doctrine becomes luminous. The Institutes have shown that this universal is oneself: oneself, first, inasmuch as this element must form a part of everything which any intelligence can know, (Props. I. II., Epistemology); oneself, secondly, inasmuch as this element must form a part of everything which any intelligence can conceive, (Props. XII. XIII., Epistemology); oneself, thirdly, inasmuch as this element must form a part of everything which any intelligence can be ignorant of, (Prop. VIII., Agnoiology). These points having