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simply set forth the fact of non-existence, we should at once lay aside the article, and no longer speak of the infinite, any more than of the nothing. It is because it stands over against the finite, embracing the sum of possibilities and powers not expressed or measured therein, that we call it the infinite. If its negative form contained the true secret of the word, it would occasion no more perplexity, would contain no more profound depths, than does the finite. Nothing is as intelligible as something, the termination as the extension of physical objects, and if the mind did accept the word as a mere denial of anything more, it would accept it contentedly, without this endless bother and perplexity, this groping on for something not yet reached.

It is said, in proof of this negative character of the notion, that it is inconceivable. This we grant, and have given the reason why it is inconceivable. It is not an object for the imagination. No more is the notion of causation, nor of liberty, nor of right, nor of beauty. Nothing which is not phenomenal, nor under the immediate form which phenomena are assuming, is a subject for the imagination. It is further said, The infinite is not thinkable. " To think is to condition," is to throw into finite relations, is to destroy the notion of the infinite. The same answer as that already made is still open. The list of our faculties is not exhausted when we have marked off the imagination and the judgment. It is possible that the reason was given to us for this very end, to reach ideas not otherwise present to the mind. We hardly see why it should be present, or thought to be present, to furnish thinkable and conceivable objects, that is, objects arrived at by other faculties.

In what sense, however, is it true that the infinite is not thinkable? It is true in this sense only, that it call not be approached by explanations grounded on resemblances, that