2. _The Conditionality of all Thinking_.--Thought necessarily supposes conditions. "To think is to condition; and conditional limitation is the fundamental law of the possibility of thought. As the eagle can not out-soar the atmosphere in which he floats, and by which alone he is supported, so the mind can not transcend the sphere of limitation within and through which the possibility of thought is realized. Thought is only of the conditioned, because, as we have said, to think is to condition."[295] Now the Infinite is the unlimited, the unconditioned, and as such can not possibly be _thought_. 3. _The notion of the Infinite--the Absolute, as entertained by man, is a mere "negation of thought._"--By this Hamilton does not mean that the idea of the Infinite is a negative idea. "The Infinite and the Absolute are _only_ the names of two counter _imbecilities_ of the human mind"[296]--that is, a mental inability to conceive an absolute limitation, or an infinite illimitation; an absolute commencement, or an infinite non-commencement. In other words, of the absolute and infinite we have no conception at all, and, consequently, no knowledge.[297] The grand law which Hamilton generalizes from the above is, "_that the conceivable is in every relation bounded by the inconceivable_." Or, again, "The conditioned or the thinkable lies between two extremes or poles; and these extremes or poles are each of them unconditioned, each of them inconceivable, each of them exclusive or contradictory of the other."[298] This is the celebrated "Law of the Conditioned." [Footnote 295: "Discussions," p. 21.] [Footnote 296: Ibid., p. 28.] [Footnote 297: "Lectures on Metaphysics," vol. ii. pp. 368, 373.] [Footnote 298: Ibid., vol. ii. p. 373.] In attempting a brief criticism of "the Philosophy of the Conditioned," we may commence by inquiring: I. _What is the real import and significance of the doctrine "that all human knowledge is only of the relative or phenomenal_?"