AS

ABSOLUTE SCIENCE,

FOUNDED IN

The Universal Laws of Being,

AND INCLUDING

ONTOLOGY, THEOLOGY, AND PSYCHOLOGY

MADE ONE,

AS SPIRIT, SOUL, AND BODY.

By E. L. & A. L. FROTHINGHAM.

"ABSOLUTE SCIENCE is the pure self-consciousness of the Reason,- the conviction that it
has of itself,-which assures to every special science its value and right import, and is at the
same time versed in them all, and combines into a whole their various branches. Its object
is the eternal truth,—the unchangeable, unborn, imperishable,-of which all that can be truly
said is, that IT IS. This eternal and unchangeable Being we call God."-PLATO.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864,

BY EPHRAIM L. FROTHINGHAM,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

BOSTON:

STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON,

5, WATER STREET.

INTRODUCTION.

THAT Truth is One, and that Philosophy must therefore be realized as Absolute Science, through the conception and application of the Universal Laws of Existence in its construction, in order that it should be legitimate, reliable, and permanent, has always been acknowledged; and the realization of this universal form has therefore been the principal object in all Ontological and Eclectical speculations. M. Chalybäus, in his "Historical Survey of Experimental Philosophy," says, "The chief business of human thought is, and must be, to discover and comprehend principle, means, and end, both in singular and in the whole. All three moments ought to be one or united; but they must also be distinguished, and, each in its own place, must necessarily be that to which, by this place, it is entitled or justified. To find the true formula for this relation, has been, as the whole history of Philosophy teaches us, the problem from Pythagoras down to Hegel incessantly has the human mind labored with this intention, and without having in itself a distinct consciousness of the fact, worked within the pale of this formula, in order to obtain possession of it for itself." Cicero recognized the necessity for this universal form, and defined Philosophy to be "The Science of things Divine, and of things Human." By Plato, "Absolute Science" was demanded as the condition of true knowledge, and was defined in the following words: "Absolute Science is the pure self-consciousness of the Reason,- the conviction that it has of itself, — which assures to every special science its value and right import, and is, at the same time, versed in them all, and