x KANT'S UNIVERSAL NATURAL HISTORY 



said of his own first Treatise, ' still-born from the 

 press'; and it was not till nearly a century afterwards 

 that its great merit and significance began to be recog- 

 nised by the leaders of science. That recognition 

 has been growing in depth and volume during the 

 past fifty years, and it is no exaggeration to say 

 that Kant's speculation now holds the foremost place, 

 in its essential positions, among all the scientific 

 cosmogonies of the time. No knowledge of physical 

 astronomy is now complete without reference to it. 



I. RELATION OF KANT'S SCIENCE TO HIS 

 PHILOSOPHY. 



The view thus indicated may, nay, must, appear 

 surprising, and even untenable at first sight, to those 

 who know Kant only as the founder of the Critical 

 Philosophy and the creator of the speculative spirit 

 of the great German systems of thought. But none 

 the less true is it, when critically and historically 

 viewed, in the light of the final issues of these 

 philosophical systems. The Critique of Pure 

 Reason, even with the addition of the two great 

 supplementary Critiques, has worked itself out to a 

 certain hopeless result which has almost been fatal 

 to the progress of philosophy itself, through the 

 brilliant idealistic movement from Fichte to Hegel, 

 till the cry in the philosophical schools for a time 

 has been 'back again to Kant/ as the still unex- 

 hausted explorer of pure reason, and the fresh 



