Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 3 "Philosophical Remains" (1883 ed.).djvu/281

Rh or extremes necessarily becoming, when thought, both the subjective and the objective in one.

Let us begin with the consideration of the objective—light. It is very easy to say that light is not seeing. But, good reader, we imagine you will be considerably puzzled to think light without allowing the thought of seeing to enter into the thinking of it. Just try to do so. Think of light without thinking of seeing; think the pure object without permitting any part of your subjective nature to be blended with it in that thought. Attempt to conjure up the thought of light without conjuring up along with it in indissoluble union the thought of seeing. Attempt this in every possible way, then reflect for a moment; and as sure as you are a living and percipient being, you will find that, in all your efforts to think of light, you invariably begin and end in thinking of the seeing of light. You think of light by and through the thought of seeing, and you can think of it in no other way. By no exertion of the mind can you separate these two. They are not two, but one. The objective light, therefore, when thought, ceases to be purely objective; it becomes both subjective and objective, both light and seeing in one. And the same truth holds good with regard to all lighted or coloured objects, such as trees, houses, &c.; we can think of these only by thinking of our seeing of them.

But you will perhaps say that, by leaving the sunshine, and going into a dark room, you are able