PROP. I.————
rant of, it must be that which we neither know nor are ignorant of. Therefore absolute existence is either, first, That which we know; or, secondly, That which we are ignorant of; or, thirdly, That which we neither know nor are ignorant of; and no other alternative is possible.
OBSERVATIONS AND EXPLANATIONS.
The problem of ontology stated. 1. The problem of ontology, as announced in the Introduction, § 54, is, What is? in the proper and emphatic sense of the word IS. What absolutely and independently exists? What, and what alone, possesses a clear, detached, emancipated, substantial, genuine, or unparasitical Being? What can that which possesses this be declared to be? What is its character? What predicate can be attached to it? This is the problem which ontology is called upon to resolve; and it will be seen as we advance, that without the whole of the preceding demonstrations, this question is insoluble, but with them its reasoned settlement may be reached.
2. This proposition opens the way. It exhibits the alternatives, any of which, so far as we see at present, Absolute Existence may be, and one or other of which it must be; for the three alternatives are exhaustive, as must be obvious to any one who considers the proposition even without the