OBJECT, in the language of metaphysics, is that of which any thinking being or sub ject can become cognizant. This subject itself, however, is capable of- transmutation into an object, for one may think about his thinking faculty. To constitute a motaphys icad object, actual existence is not necessary; it is enough that it is conceived by the subject. Nevertheless, it is customary to employ the term objective as synonymous with real, so that a thing is said to be "objectively" considered when regarded in itself, and according to its nature and properties, and to be "subjectively" considered, when it is presented in its relation to us, or as it shapes itself in our apprehension. Skepticism denies the possibility of objective knowledge; i.e., it denies that we can ever become certain that our cognition of an object corresponds with the actual nature of that object. The verbal antithesis of objective and subjective representation is also largely employed in the fine arts, but even here, though the terms may be convenient, the difference expressed by them is only one of degree, and not of kind. When a poeth or a novel, for
example, obtrudes the peculiar genius of the author at the expense of a clear and distinct representation of the incident and character appropriate to itself, we say it is a subjec• Live work; when, ou the contrary, the personality of the author retires into the back ground, or disappears altogether, we call it objective. The poems of Shelley and Byron: the novels of Jean Paul Richter, Billwer Lytton, and Victor Hugo; and the paintings of the preraphaelites belong essentially to the former class; the dramas of Shakespeare, the novels of Scott, and the poems of Goethe to the latter.