2. "The Law of the Conditioned," as a ground of faith in the Infinite Being, is utterly void, meaningless, and ineffectual. Let us re-state it in Hamilton's own words: "The conditioned is the _mean_ between two extremes, two inconditionates exclusive of each other, neither of which _can be conceived as possible_, but of which, on the principle of Contradiction and Excluded Middle, _one must be admitted as necessary_." It is scarcely needful to explain to the intelligent reader the above logical principles; that they may, however, be clearly before the mind in this connection, we state that the principle of Contradiction is this: "A thing can not at the same time be and not be; _A is_, _A is not_, are propositions which can not both be true at once." The principle of Excluded Middle is this: "A thing either is or is not--_A either is or is not B_; there is no _medium_."[354] Now, to mention the law of Excluded Middle and two contradictories with a _mean_ between them, in the same sentence, is really astounding. "If the two contradictory extremes are equally incogitable, yet include a cogitable mean, why insist upon the necessity of accepting either extreme? This necessity of accepting one of the contradictories is wholly based upon the supposed impossibility of a _mean_; if a mean exists, _that_ may be true, and both contradictories together false. But if a mean between two contradictories be both impossible and absurd, Hamilton's 'conditioned' entirely vanishes."[355] If both contradictories are equally unknown and equally unthinkable, we can not discover _why_, on his principles, we are bound to believe _either_. [Footnote 354: Hamilton's "Logic," pp. 58, 59; "Metaphysics," vol. ii. p. 368.] [Footnote 355: North British Review, October, 1864, pp. 415, 416.]