128 THE GENESIS OF SCIENCE. 



It is needless to proceed further with the analysis ; else 

 might we detail the steps by which Oken arrives at the 

 conclusions that &quot; the planets are coagulated colours, for 

 they are coagulated light ; that the sphere is the expanded 

 nothing ; &quot; that gravity is &quot; a weighty nothing, a heavy es 

 sence, striving towards a centre ; &quot; thai &quot; the earth is the 

 Identical, water the indifferent, air the different ; or the 

 first the centre, the second the radius, the last the peri 

 phery of the general globe or of fire.&quot; To comment on 

 them would be nearly as absurd as arc the propositions 

 themselves. Let us pass on to another of the German sys 

 tems of knowledge that of Jlegel. 



The simple fact that Hegel puts Jacob Bcchmc on a par 

 with Bacon, suffices alone to show that his stand-point is 

 far remote from the one usually regarded as scientific : so 

 far remote, indeed, that it is not easy to find any common 

 basis on which to found a criticism. Those who hold that 

 the mind is moulded into conformity with surrounding 

 things by the agency of surrounding things, are necessarily 

 at a loss how to deal with those, who, like Schelling and 

 Hegel, assert that surrounding things are solidified mind 

 that Nature is &quot; petrified intelligence.&quot; However, let ua 

 briefly glance at Hegel s classification. lie divides philoso 

 phy into three parts : 



1. T^ofjl^ or the science of the idea in itself, tho pure 

 idea. 



2. TJic Philosophy of Ndturc, or the science of the idea 

 considered under its other form of the idea as Nature. 



3. The Philosophy of tJie Mind, QT the science of the 

 idea in its return to itself. 



Of these, the second is divided into the natural sciences, 

 commonly so called ; so that in its more detailed form tho 

 series runs thus: Logic, Mechanics, Physics, Organic Phy 

 sics, Psychology. 



Now, if wo believe with Hegel, first, thai thought is tie 



