THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. ft 



the negative one above stated that the reality existing 

 behind all appearances is, and must ever be, unknown. To 

 this conclusion almost every thinker of note has subscribed. 

 " With the exception/' says Sir William Hamilton, " of a 

 few late Absolutist theorisers in Germany, this is, perhaps, 

 the truth of all others most harmoniously re-echoed by 

 every philosopher of every school." And among these he 

 names Protagoras, Aristotle, St. Augustin, Boethius, 

 Averroes, Albertus Magnus, Gerson, Leo Hebraeus, Me- 

 lancthon, Scaliger, Francis Piccolomini, Giordano Bruno, 

 Campanella, Bacon, Spinoza, Newton, Kant. 



It yet remains to point out how this belief may be estab- 

 lished rationally, as well as empirically. Not only is it that, 

 as in the earlier thinkers above named, a vague perception of 

 the inscrutableness of things in themselves results from dis- 

 covering the illusiveness of sense-impressions ; and not only 

 is it that, as shown in the foregoing chapters, definite experi- 

 ments evolve alternative impossibilities of thought out of 

 every ultimate conception we can frame; but it is that the 

 relativity of our knowledge is demonstrable analytically. 

 The induction drawn from general and special experiences, 

 may be confirmed by a deduction from the nature of our 

 intelligence. Two ways of reaching such a deduction exist. 

 Proof that our cognitions are not, and never can be, abso- 

 lute, is obtainable by analyzing either the product of 

 thought, or the process of thought. Let us analyze each. 



23. If, when walking through the fields some day in 

 September, you hear a rustle a few yards in advance, and 

 on observing the ditch-side where it occurs, see the herbage 

 agitated, you will probably turn towards the spot to learn by 

 what this sound and motion are produced. As you approach 

 there flutters into the ditch, a partridge; on seeing which 

 your curiosity is satisfied you have what you call an expla- 

 nation of the appearances. The explanation, mark, amounts 

 to this;, that whereas throughout life you have had countless 



