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Rh form a coherent chain no less than the propositions; and this, the last link in the series, traces its genealogy in a long but unbroken line up to the cardinal contradiction set forth in the first counter-proposition of the epistemology—just as the proposition by which it is overthrown, and the truth of theism established, owes its whole strength to the first proposition of that section of the science. The crowning contradiction, which the system corrects by means of Proposition XI., is the supposition that the material universe by itself is non-contradictory, and accordingly is, or may be, self-subsistent and eternal.

28. Such then are the cardinal contradictions incident to natural thinking, and confirmed by psychological science; and such, in brief, is the manner in which they have been pointed out and corrected by these Institutes. Accordingly, it is submitted that the system has executed the work which it undertook, and has redeemed the principal pledge which it held out at the commencement.

29. By the foregoing summary, in which the system has been exhibited mainly in its polemical character as corrective of the contradictions incident to popular opinion, the utility of the science of metaphysics is placed in a conspicuous light. If philosophy were a science which aimed merely at