bid., p. 28.]

[Footnote 297: "Lectures on Metaphysics," vol. ii. pp. 368, 373.]

[Footnote 298: Ibid., vol. ii. p. 373.]

In attempting a brief criticism of "the Philosophy of the Conditioned,"
we may commence by inquiring:

I. _What is the real import and significance of the doctrine "that all
human knowledge is only of the relative or phenomenal_?"

Hamilton calls this "the great axiom" of philosophy. That we may
distinctly comprehend its meaning, and understand its bearing on the
subject under discussion, we must ascertain the sense in which he uses
the words "_phenomenal_" and "_relative._" The importance of an exact
terminology is fully appreciated by our author; and accordingly, in
three Lectures (VIII., IX., X.), he has given a full explication of the
terms most commonly employed in philosophic discussions. Here the word
"_phenomenon_" is set down as the necessary "_correlative_" of the word
"_subject_" or "_substance_." "These terms can not be explained apart,
for each is correlative of the other, each can be comprehended only in
and through its correlative. The term '_subject_' is used to denote the
unknown (?) basis which lies under the various _phenomena_ or properties
of which we become aware, whether in our external or internal
experience."[299] "The term '_relative_' is _opposed_ to the term
'_absolute_;' therefore, in saying that we know only the relative, I
virtually assert that we know nothing absolutely, that is, _in and for
itself, and without relation to us and our faculties_."[300] Now, in the
philosophy of Sir William Hamilton, "the absolute" is defined as "that
which is aloof from relation"--"that which is out of all relation."[301]
The _absolute_ can not, therefore, be "_the correlative_" of the
conditioned--can not stand in any relation to the phenomenal. The
_subject,_ however, is the necessary correlative of the phenomenal, and,
consequently, the subject and the absolute are not identical.
Furthermore, Hamilton tells us the subject _may be comprehended_ in and
through its correlative--the phenomenon; but the absolute, being aloof
from all relation, can not be comprehended or conceived at all. "The
subject" and "the absolute" are, therefore, not synonymous terms; and,
if they are not synonymous, then their antithetical terms, "phenomenal"
and "relative," can not be synonymous.

[Footnote 299: "Lectures on Metaphysics," vol. i. p. 148.]

[Footnote 300: Ibid., vol. i. p. 137.]

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