OF THE UNITY OF THOUGHT. 675 



been brought into connection with that of Schopenhauer. 49. 



Contrast 



In the opinion of German, and still more of foreign, histo- >^etween 



'- ° Schopen- 



rians of philosophy, he is to be classed amongst the great von^Hart- 

 exponents of pessimism in modern thought. But though ™^°"' 

 his earliest work, through which he attained a sudden 

 celebrity hardly sustained in his later writings, gives 

 a certain colour to this classification, the classification 

 is more misleading than helpful. Von Hartmann was 

 indeed influenced by Schopenhauer, and he, even more 

 than the latter, upheld the opinion that an unbiassed 

 examination of human life showed that the world con- 

 tained more evil than good, more unhappiness and 

 suffering than happiness and enjoyment. But as he, 

 especially in his later writings, entirely opposes the 

 eudsemonistic theory of morality, the inference he draws 

 from this pessimistic view of the world and life does 

 not lead him on to preach inaction, renunciation, and 

 quietism, but rather the opposite — an energetic 

 striving, a hopeful combat with evil. In this respect 

 the doctrine of von Hartmann has only gradually be- 

 come better understood. And in other respects he 

 differs still more from Schopenhauer. He was well 

 acquainted with modern German speculation, and his 

 points of contact with Schelling, Hegel, and other 

 prominent thinkers are quite as important as those 

 with Schopenhauer ; in fact, his philosophy may be 

 regarded as a reconciliation of the truth contained in 

 Hegel's with that contained in Schopenhauer's system. 

 He fully understood the task which was implied in 

 Schelling's later writings — the demand for a positive 

 as complementary to a purely negative or formal 



