James Frederick Ferrier

“ The indestructible vitality of metaphysical science I hold to be a settled point, in spite of the discouraging appearance which both its past and its present condition may present. It is a spirit which cannot be put down, because it has its origin in an intellectual craving which cannot be repressed. And let people decry the science as they may, of this we may be assured, that they know it in their secret hearts to be the most essential and the most ethereal manifestation of mental power which the human intellect can exhibit. ”

“ The deep river of speculative thought, with all its devious windings, with all its perilous shoals, whirlpools, and cataracts, will flow on for ever; and he must be a rustic, a barbarian indeed, who would loiter on its banks in the vain expectation of beholding the mighty flood at length run dry. ”

“ Nevertheless, the picture which I have just drawn of the unsatisfactory state of this science is not overcharged, and therefore much must be done in the way of reducing its chaotic elements to order and precision, if metaphysics are to take the lead—nay, if they are ever to hold their place—among the themes of academical instruction. Above all things, it is incumbent on the cultivator and expounder of this science to have formed and to be able to exhibit a distinct conception of the business which it takes in hand, the work it has to do, the end or object at which it aims. ”

“ A superficial glance at natural objects discloses to us the obvious, apparent; but science, inquiry, investigation, these are required to lay before us the hidden real facts of nature with which chemistry deals. ”

“ Great proficients in the physical sciences, wedded to their own objects and captivated with their own methods, have proscribed it as a vain and illegitimate and unprofitable pursuit. But such a prohibition is founded on an entire miscalculation of the capacities, the aspirations, and the demands of the human soul. ”

“ The same distinction could very easily be shown to be the foundation of every other science. All the physical sciences have this in common, that they are researches into what is real as distinguished from what is apparent, that is, from what lies exposed and obvious on the very surface of things. ”

“ You scarcely require to be told that the world is imbued with a pretty strong prejudice against metaphysics. Go where we will, we find that the very term is a word of bad omen, a synonym for subtle trifling, an abbreviated expression for the unprofitable, the perplexing, the indefinite, the uncertain, and the incomprehensible. ”

“ By the real and the hidden I mean such facts as are not of this obtrusive character, such truths as do not force themselves spontaneously on our observation, but are to be reached and disclosed only by means of an intellectual effort. ”