The last problem that the science of the true presented is resolved:--we are in possession of the basis of absolute truths. God is substance, reason, supreme cause, and the unity of all these truths; God, and God alone, is to us the boundary beyond which we have nothing more to seek. FOOTNOTES: [44] See our work entitled, _Metaphysics of Aristotle_, 2d edition, _passim_. In Aristotle himself, see especially _Metaphysics_, book vii., chap. xii., and book xiii., chap. ix. [45] There are doubtless many other ways of arriving at God, as we shall successively see; but this is the way of metaphysics. We do not exclude any of the known and accredited proofs of the existence of God; but we begin with that which gives all the others. See further on, part ii., _God, the Principle of Beauty_, and part iii., _God, the Principle of the Good_, and the last lecture, which sums up the whole course. [46] We have said a word on the Platonic theory of ideas, 1st Series, vol. iv., p. 461 and 522. See also, vol. ii. of the 2d Series, lecture 7, on _Plato and Aristotle_, especially 3d Series, vol. i., a few words on the _Language of the Theory of Ideas_, p. 121; our work on the _Metaphysics of Aristotle_, p. 48 and 149, and our translation of Plato, _passim_. [47] Aristotle first stated this; modern peripatetics have repeated it; and after them, all who have wished to decry the ancient philosophy, and philosophy in general, by giving the appearance of absurdity to its most illustrious representative. [48] See particularly p. 121 of the _Timaeus_, vol. xii. of our translation. [49] _Republic_, book vi., vol. x. of our translation, p. 57. [50] _Republic_, book vii., p. 20. [51] _Phaedrus_, vol. vi., p. 51. [52] _Phaedrus_, vol. vi., p. 55. [53] Vol. xi., p. 261. [54] Edit. Bened., vol. vi., p. 17: _Idex sunt formae quaedam principales et rationes rerum stabiles atque incommutabiles, quae ipsae formatae non sunt ac per hoc aeternae ac semper eodem modo sese habentes, quae in divina intelligentia continentur_.... [55] Edit. Bened., vol. vi., p. 18. _Singula igitur propriis creata sunt rationibus. Has autem rationes ubi arbitrandum est esse nisi in mente Creatoris? non enim extra se quidquam intuebatur, ut secundum id constitueret quod constituebat: nam hoc opinari sacrilegum est._ [56] _Ibid._ See also, book of the _Confessions_, book ii. of the _Free Will_, book xii. of the _Trinity_, book vii. of the _City of God_, &c. [57] _Summa totius theologiae_. Primae partis quaest. xii. art. 11. _Ad tertium dicendum, quod omnia dicimus in Deo videre, et secundum ipsum de omnibus judicare, in quantum per participationem sui luminis omnia cognoscimus et dijudicamus. Nam et ipsum lumen naturale rationis participatio quaedam est divini luminis._