end consciousness:
consciousness is only possible under the antithesis of a subject and an
object known only in correlation, and _mutually limiting each
other_"[318] Thought necessarily supposes conditions; "to think is
simply to condition," that is, to predicate limits; and as the infinite
is the unlimited, it can not be thought. The very attempt to think the
infinite renders it finite; therefore there can be no infinite _in
thought_, and, consequently, the infinite can not be known.

[Footnote 317: Calderwood's "Philosophy of the Infinite," p. 179.]

[Footnote 318: "Discussions," p. 21.]

If by "the infinite in thought" is here meant the infinite compassed or
contained in thought, we readily grant that the finite can not contain
the infinite; it is a simple truism which no one has ever been so
foolish as to deny. Even Cousin is not so unwise as to assert the
absolutely comprehensibility of God. "In order absolutely to comprehend
the Infinite, it is necessary to have an infinite power of
comprehension, and this is not granted to us."[319] A finite mind can
not have "an infinite thought." But it by no means follows that, because
we can not have infinite thought, we can have no clear and definite
thought of or concerning the Infinite. We have a precise and definite
idea of infinitude; we can define the idea; we can set it apart without
danger of being confounded with another, and we can reason concerning
it. There is nothing we more certainly and intuitively know than that
space is infinite, and yet we can not comprehend or grasp within the
compass of our thought the infinite space. We can not form an _image_ of
infinite space, can not traverse it in perception, or represent it by
any combination of numbers; but we can have the _thought_ of it as an
idea of Reason, and can argue concerning it with precision and
accuracy.[320] Hamilton has an idea of the Infinite; he defines it; he
reasons concerning it; he says "we must believe in the infinity of God."
But how can he define the Infinite unless he possesses some knowledge,
however limited, of the infinite Being? How can he believe in the
infinity of God if he has no definite idea of infinitude? He can not
reason about, can not affirm or deny any thing concerning, that of which
he knows absolutely nothing.

[Footnote 319: "Lectures on History of Philosophy," vol. i. p. 104.]

[Footnote 320: "To form an _image_ of any infinitude--be it of time or
space [or power]; to g