432 Colonel Kennepy on the Véddnta System. 
production. Hence the knowledge I have of other spirits is not imme- 
diate, as is the knowledge of my ideas; but depending on the intervention 
of ideas, by me referred to agents or spirits distinct from myself, as effects 
or concomitant signs.” Sec. cxLv. 
It is however in Germany only, and during the last forty years, that 
metaphysicians have attempted to discover an absolute unity, which differed 
from the identification of the Supreme Being with the universe, and from 
Spinozism; but the only original works on the subject which I have 
read, are some of the writings of Ficurm and Scuevine, and these, as 
well as the accounts given of the metaphysical systems that have prevailed 
during that period in Germany, are so obscure, that it is almost impossible 
to understand them. Friend and foe, indeed, admit the dark profundity of 
Kanrt’s speculations, and both Ficute and Scuexuine have published com- 
plaints of their opinions having been misunderstood. 
Ficute even thought it necessary to publish a short work, entitled 
** Advice to the Public, clear as the Sun,”* in which he exposes the real 
principles of his system, and endeavours to rectify the erroneous notions 
entertained respecting it. But in this very work he complains of the diffi- 
culty, which the imperfection of language opposes to his rendering his 
opinions intelligible, and wishes that he could explain them by a system 
of figures, each of which had a known and positive value. At the same 
time he expressly declares, that the scope of his system has never been 
spoken or explained by words, and that it even admits not of being so 
explained, but must be comprehended by intuition. ‘This remark seems to 
be quite correct, for this system is founded on the assumption that there is 
absolute identity between the subject and the object, which is denoted by 
Ficute by this formula A= A. Former metaphysicians, however, were of 
opinion that from an identical proposition no conclusion could be drawn. 
But Ficure disdains to employ logical reasoning in support of his opinions, 
and contents himself with appealing to intuition. Hence he gives, in page 
186 of the tract above referred to, the following explanation of the funda- 
mental principle of his system, which the reader is expected to find clear as 
the sun:, “Egoism (die Ichheit) is subject-objectivity, and nothing else 
* The title at length of this work is a most singular one. It is “ Advice, clear as the Sun, 
to the Public, respecting the Real Nature of the Newest Philosophy; an attempt to compel the 
Reader to Understand. By Iohann Gotlieb Fichte.” 
