hout an object of thought, or to think of something without any
qualities, or to think "something" which in the act of thought melts
away into "nothing," is an absurdity and a contradiction. We can not
think about nothing. All thought must have an object, and every object
must have some predicate. Even space has some predicates--as
receptivity, unity, and infinity. Thought can only be realized by
thinking something existing, and existing in a determinate manner; and
when we cease to think something having predicates, we cease to think at
all. This is emphatically asserted by Hamilton himself.[335] "Negative
thinking" is, therefore, a meaningless phrase, a contradiction in terms;
it is no thought at all. We are cautioned, however, against regarding
"the negation of thought" as "a negation of all mental ability." It is,
we are told, "an attempt to think, and a failure in the attempt." An
attempt to think about _what_? Surely it must be about some object, and
an object which is _known_ by some sign, else there can be no thought.
Let any one make the attempt to think without something to think about,
and he will find that both the process and the result are blank
nothingness. All thought, therefore, as Calderwood has amply shown, is,
must be, _positive_. "Thought is nothing else than the comparison of
objects known; and as knowledge is always positive, so must our thought
be. All knowledge implies an object _known_; and so all thought involves
an object about which we think, and must, therefore, be positive--that
is, it must embrace within itself the conception of certain qualities as
belonging to the object."[336]

[Footnote 335: "Logic," p. 55.]

[Footnote 336: "Philosophy of the Infinite," p. 272.]

The conclusion of Hamilton's reasoning in regard to "negative thinking"
is, that we can form no notion of the Infinite Being. We have no
positive idea of such a Being. We can think of him only by "the thinking
away of every characteristic" which can be conceived, and thus "ceasing
to think at all." We can only form a "negative concept," which, we are
told, "is in fact no concept at all." We can form only a "negative
notion," which, we are informed, "is only the negation of a notion."
This is the impenetrable abyss of total gloom and emptiness into which
the philosophy of the conditions leads us at last.[337]

[Footnote 337: Whilst Spencer accepts the general doctrine of Hamilton,
that the Ultimate Reality is inscrutable, h