THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 93 



proves that in consciousness the Unlimited and the Indi- 

 visible are qualitatively distinct, and therefore positive or 

 real; since distinction cannot exist between nothings. The 

 error, (very naturally fallen into by philosophers intent on 

 demonstrating ther limits and conditions of consciousness,) 

 consists in assuming that consciousness contains nothing but 

 limits and conditions; to the entire neglect of that which is 

 limited and conditioned. It is forgotten that there is some- 

 thing which alike forms the raw material of definite 

 thought and remains after the definiteness which thinking 

 gave to it has been destroyed. Now all this applies by 



change of terms to the last and highest of these antinomies 

 that between the Relative and the Non-relative. We 

 are conscious of the Relative as existence under conditions 

 and limits; it is impossible that these conditions and limits 

 can be thought of apart from something to which they give 

 the form ; the abstraction of these conditions and limits, is, 

 by the hypothesis, the abstraction of them only ; conse- 

 quently there must be a residuary consciousness of some- 

 thing which filled up their outlines; and this indefinite 

 something constitutes our consciousness of the Non-relative 

 or Absolute. Impossible though it is to give to this con- 

 sciousness any qualitative or quantitative expresion what- 

 ever, it is not the less certain that it remains with us as a posi- 

 tive and indestructible element of thought. 



Still more manifest will this truth become when it is ob- 

 served that our conception of the Relative itself disappears, 

 if our conception of the Absolute is a pure negation. It is 

 admitted, or rather it is contended, by the writers I have 

 quoted above, that contradictories can be known only in re- 

 lation to each other that Equality, for instance, is un- 

 thinkable apart from its correlative Inequality; and that 

 thus the Relative can itself be conceived only by opposition 

 to the Non-relative. It is also admitted, or rather contended, 

 that the consciousness of a relation implies a consciousness 

 of both the related members. If we are required to con- 



