The whole prospects of philosophy, according to the conception of it which we are endeavouring to fix, are obviously involved in the answer to this question. If we reply peremptorily that man's faculties are in no degree competent to the attainment of absolute truth, our discussion is at once cut short, and our conception of philosophy is annihilated. Such is the result if we answer this question in the negative. Therefore, while I admit the difficulty and the importance of the question, I am constrained to answer it in the affirmative, although I cannot at present set forth fully the grounds of my decision. I answer it in the affirmative with this proviso—a proviso which may perhaps save me from the charge of speaking too dogmatically—and I say that man's faculties are competent to the attainment of absolute truth, provided and in so far as man's mind has something in common with all other minds; in other words, provided there be a universal intelligent nature in which he is a partaker. It is obvious that this community of intellectual nature is the ground, and the only ground, on which man can lay claim to any knowledge of the absolute truth, because absolute truth has been defined as that which exists for all minds; but unless man's mind has something in common with all minds, absolute truth cannot exist for him, can have no meaning in reference to him; while, on the other hand, if he has something in common with all other intelligences, he may lay claim to an interest
