TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION C1X 



fatally entangled in his Paralogism and Antinomies 

 which wound him round and round, and from which 

 he never won entire freedom again. If we are now 

 to correct the errors and excesses to which that 

 false position led, both in himself and his great 

 successors of the German speculation, we must 

 turn back to his first vaster speculation as the 

 condition both of a truer science and of a truer 

 philosophy. Here we see him in the dawn of 

 all his power, pluming his wings for his mighty 

 flight through the vast universe of God, and soaring 

 even beyond the flaming walls of the world ' the 

 secrets of the abyss to spy.' For certainly he did 

 inherit and did not lack 



Nor the pride, nor ample pinion, 

 That the Theban Eagle bear, 



Sailing with supreme dominion 



Thro' the azure deep of air. 



Thus and there, in loftiest quest, I leave him with 

 the Reader, who will surely follow him in his flight, 

 with some of that admiration and sympathy which 

 drew from Struve the appreciative and just judg- 

 ment : ' Entreprise sublime, si elle n'est pas trop 

 hardie pour 1'esprit humain ! En tout cas, 1'astro- 

 nome qui a lu 1'ouvrage, s'il ne souscrit point 

 a toutes les speculations qu'il renferme, ne s'en 

 separera surement qu'avec une vive admiration du 

 genie et des vues surfois prophetiques de 1'auteur.' 



-irr TT 



UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW, 

 September, 1900. 



