validity of
Hamilton's argument. For if it can be shown that the absolute and the
infinite (in Hamilton's sense) are both inconceivable, the unconditioned
(or absolute in Cousin's sense), which must be conceived as one or the
other, is inconceivable also. Or, conversely, if it can be shown that the
unconditioned, the unrelated in general, is inconceivable, it follows
that the absolute and the infinite, as both involving the unrelated, are
inconceivable also.

We may now proceed with Mr. Mill's criticism. He says:--

"Absolute, in the sense in which, it stands related to Infinite,
means (conformably to its etymology) that which is finished or
completed. There are some things of which the utmost ideal amount
is a limited quantity, though a quantity never actually reached....
We may speak of absolutely, but not of infinitely, pure water. The
purity of water is not a fact of which, whatever degree we suppose
attained, there remains a greater beyond. It has an absolute limit:
it is capable of being finished or complete, in thought, if not in
reality."--(P. 34.)

This criticism is either incorrect or _nihil ad rem_. If meant as a
statement of Hamilton's use of the term, it is incorrect: _absolute_, in
Hamilton's philosophy, does not mean simply "completed," but "out of
relation as completed;" _i.e._, self-existent in its completeness, and
not implying the existence of anything else. If meant in any other sense
than Hamilton's, it is irrelevant. Can Mr. Mill really have believed that
Schelling thought it necessary to invent an intellectual intuition out of
time and out of consciousness, in order to contemplate "an ideal limited
quantity," such as the complete purity of water?

Mr. Mill continues:--

"Though the idea of Absolute is thus contrasted with that of
Infinite, the one is equally fitted with the other to be predicated
of God; but not in respect of the same attributes. There is no
incorrectness of speech in the phrase Infinite Power: because the
notion it expresses is that of a Being who has the power of doing
all things which we know or can conceive, and more. But in speaking
of knowledge, Absolute is the proper word, and not Infinite. The
highest degree of knowledge that can be spoken of with a meaning,
only amounts to knowing all that there is to be known: when that
point is reached, knowledge has attained its utmost limit. So of
goodness or justice: they cannot be more t