Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 1 - Institutes of Metaphysic (1875 ed.).djvu/73

Rh contrasting error; and, therefore, in the contemplation and exhibition of truth, a philosopher should take especial care not to keep himself too loftily aloof from the contemplation and exhibition of error, as these proud spirits, Plato, Spinoza, Leibnitz, and Hegel, most undoubtedly did, much to the detriment of their own profound disquisitions, and to the loss of mankind, who, had their method been different, might have profited more largely by their wisdom.

§ 52. This system, therefore, attempts to pursue a different and less lofty course. In endeavouring to make truth understood, it relies chiefly on the illumination which truth may receive from being placed in strong and clear contrast with error. It sets off the true by the aid of the opposing false. This consideration has prompted the somewhat novel method of "proposition" and "counter-proposition "—a method which seems to be the only satisfactory mode of procedure in dealing with purely speculative matters, as carrying with it certain decided advantages in the way of general intelligibility, and of putting an end to all scepticism, vacillation, or indecision of opinion on philosophical topics; while the other method, which merely plans the exhibition of truth, and not the counter-exhibition of error, fails in all these important particulars.

§ 53. This institute of metaphysic is divided into