THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 83 



Observe the corollary which here concerns us. A cogni- 

 tion of the Real, as distinguished from the Phenomenal, 

 must, if it exists, conform to this law of cognition in general. 

 The First Cause, The Infinite, the Absolute, to be known at 

 all, must be classed. To be positively thought of, it must be 

 thought of as such or such as of this or that kind. Can it 

 be like in kind to anything of which we have sensible 

 experience ? Obviously not. Between the creating and the 

 created, there must be a distinction transcending any of the 

 distinctions existing between different divisions of the cre- 

 ated. That which is uncaused cannot be assimilated to that 

 which is caused: the two being, in the very naming, anti- 

 thetically opposed. The Infinite cannot be grouped along 

 with something that is finite ; since, in being so grouped, it 

 must be regarded as non-infinite. It is impossible to put the 

 Absolute in the same category with anything relative, so 

 long as the Absolute is defined as that of which no necessary 

 relation can be predicated. Is it then that the Actual, 

 though unthinkable by classification with the Apparent, is 

 thinkable by classification with itself? This supposition is 

 equally absurd with the other. It implies the plurality of 

 the First Cause, the Infinite, the Absolute ; and this impli- 

 cation is self -contradictory. There cannot be more than one 

 First Cause; seeing that the existence of more than one 

 would involve the existence of something necessitating 

 more than one, which something would be the true First 

 Cause. How self -destructive is the assumption of two "or 

 more Infinites, is manifest on remembering that such In- 

 finites, by limiting each other, would become finite. And 

 similarly, an Absolute which existed not alone but along 

 with other Absolutes, would no longer be an absolute but a 

 relative. The Unconditioned therefore, as classable neither 

 with any form of the conditioned nor with any other Un- 

 conditioned, cannot be classed at all. And to admit that it 

 cannot be known as of such or such kind, is to admit that it 

 is unknowable. 



