640 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



blindly accepted him as a guide. We understand that he writes 

 from a certain standpoint, and that unconsciously and inevitably 

 he will see things, not just as they are, but as tinged by his own 

 subjective light. Where, for instance, shall we find a perfectly 

 just history of philosophy ? Not in Schwegler, who glances over 

 the past through a pair of thick Hegelian spectacles ; nor in 

 Lewes, who apperceives the opinions of thinkers with a positiv- 

 istic bias. Theology is quite a different science as presented by a 

 St. Augustine and a Pelagius, by a Protestant and a Romanist. 

 The Socrates of Grote is not the same man as the Socrates of 

 Cousin. Jesus, even, is seen in an entirely different light by Fleet- 

 wood and by Renan. The Greek thinkers, especially Aristotle 

 and Plato, have suffered much at the hands of modern writers, 

 being used as props to bolster up every man's system of science or 

 philosophy. 



Over - interpretation is really only the logical outcome of 

 another wide-spread evil, that of over-systemization. This is a 

 prevalent modern vice. It is the abuse of classification, or the 

 scientific method. It is the tendency to group under any outlined 

 system or theory more facts than properly belong to it. We fall 

 in love with our favorite theory, and it seems to us to possess 

 exaggerated virtues, and to be able to explain all phenomena. 

 Darwinism in biological science, utilitarianism in ethics, and He- 

 gelianism in philosophy, are examples. The latter is a very beau- 

 tiful illustration of over-systemization. Hegel, with his thesis, 

 antithesis, and synthesis, fondly thought he had spread a net that 

 should capture the universe. But the strain appears to have been 

 too great, and already we see the ruins of a great collapsed phi- 

 losophy. Over-systemization is apparent also in the present rage 

 for publication, especially in Germany. Every university man 

 must publish a book, and every book must present either some 

 theory or the results of some original research. Under these cir- 

 cumstances, it is not surprising that the demand for new material 

 exceeds the supply. The result is, that the author falls back upon 

 his own mental resources. He makes a new and original hypoth- 

 esis and apperceives his facts to fit his theory. Adopting, as it 

 would seem, the maxim that it is better to be original than 

 reasonable, it is considered no disadvantage if the new hypothesis 

 is somewhat fanciful and startling, as for instance that Schiller, 

 not Goethe, was the author of " Faust," or that Shakespeare's 

 plays were written by Bacon. 



I have explained the narrowing effect of " schools " and sys- 

 tems, and the mental bias which results from over-systemization ; 

 but the use as well as the abuse of systems must not pass un- 

 noticed. There is good in them as well as evil. Trendelenburg 

 says that a system is as necessary for a thinker as a house. We 



