OF THE UNITY OF THOUGHT. 665 



which had followed Hegel's speculation with increasing 

 attention, attempts were made to remodel and amplify 

 the argument. Among these attempts, that of Weisse 

 was the most elaborate ; it was that also which in- 

 fluenced Lotze himself in his early studies. 



On the other side an equal defect in Hegel's specu- 

 lation was the unsatisfactory treatment of the whole 

 region of actual phenomena. This showed itself no- 

 where more than in his inability to understand the 

 contingent in nature, the endless variety and manifold- 

 ness of her creations. This defect had been pointed out 

 during Hegel's lifetime already by Schelling, who main- 

 tained a lifelong protest against what he termed the 

 negative side of his own earlier speculations and of 

 the whole of Hegel's completed system. But though 

 Schelling on the one side, and, influenced by him, Weisse 

 on the other, tried to remedy these defects, it was not 

 through their efforts but rather from quite independent 

 quarters that this was successfully attempted. Without 

 any reference to the unification of thought as contained 

 in Hegel's scheme, the two sides in which it was most 

 wanting were cultivated in the exact philosophy of 

 nature on the one side, in the positive religious philo- 

 sophy of Schleiermacher on the other. 



This marks the entry of the positive spirit as opposed 43. 



, . . Entry ot 



to the metaphysical : positive not only so far as the positive 



spirit. 



natural but also so far as religious phenomena are 

 concerned. It mar,ks at the same time the splitting 

 up of the programme of the earlier metaphysical 

 philosophy into two entirely different aspects : the 

 scientific, which is based upon the observation of nature 



