Full Idea
In genuine cognition ...an object determines itself from within itself, and does not acquire its predicates in an external way. If we proceed by way of predication, the spirit gets the feeling that the predicates cannot exhaust what they are attached to.
Gist of Idea
Real cognition grasps a thing from within itself, and is not satisfied with mere predicates
Source
Georg W.F.Hegel (Logic (Encyclopedia I) [1817], §28 Add)
Book Reference
Hegel,Georg W.F.: 'The Hegel Reader', ed/tr. Houlgate,Stephen [Blackwell 1998], p.145
A Reaction
I take this to be a glimpse of Hegel's notoriously difficult account of essence. Place this alongside Locke's distinction between Nominal and Real essences. Once we have the predicates, we want to grasp their source.