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INSTITUTES OF METAPHYSIC.
PROP. XIII.————
number of other instances. He can think of the universe plus another self ad libitum; because, so soon as the conception of any one case is obtained, the conception of a plurality of analogous cases is also compassed. The conception of one necessarily brings along with it the conception of many.
Further explanation of how one self can conceive another self.8. These Institutes will scarcely be charged with loose argumentation, or with a disposition to flinch from any consequence to which their premises may lead. All that they are concerned about is, that their deductions should be correctly drawn—not that they should be approved of when drawn: that issue must be as fortune may determine. The plea, therefore, which would limit each individual to the cogitation of his own individual self is rejected, not because it is unpalatable, but because it is illogical. We are as much inclined to deal strictly with this point as any of our readers can be. The system, then, admits that each man can be cognisant, or have experience, only of his own individual self, and only of the universe which is presented to that individual self. The question, therefore, may be asked, How can he conceive any other self than this individual, or any other universe than that which this individual is in contact with? Here it is that the distinction between the simply inconceivable by us, and the absolutely inconceivable in itself, comes to our assistance,