AND ITS SELF-CONSERVATIOH. 233 



Hegel,, is, after all, a magnificent imaging of the self- 

 evolution of the world-energy; though for that "philos- 

 ophy," indeed, the process vanishes hopelessly in the 

 inane void of the "unknowable." On the other hand, 

 in the Hegelian philosophy, as also in that of Aristotle, 

 this self-evolution of the World-Energy is shown to be 

 the eternal process of the self-realization of the absolute, 

 divine Spirit. 



It is toward this conclusion, too, as I attempt to show 

 in the present argument, that the central conceptions of 

 modern science also really point. Antagonism between 

 real science and real philosophy there is and can be none. 

 Philosophers need only to attentively consider the actual 

 results of science to discover in them practical illustra- 

 tions of the fundamental conceptions of philosophy; 

 while scientists need only to familiarize themselves with 

 the central principles of the much-decried " speculative 

 philosophy" to find in them the clue to the complete 

 harmonizing and unification of the results of science. 



It is true that Hegel's " NaturpMlosophie " is a 

 most unfortunate "application" of his admirable dia- 

 lectic method. Its arbitrary fetches are such that no 

 scientist of the present day could read it with any 

 degree of patience. This, indeed, proves Hegel's defi- 

 ciency on the side of empirical science. But the Logic 

 of Hegel, nevertheless, remains as one of the completest 

 and most symmetrical of all the monuments constructed 

 by the energy of human reason. If it affords no clue 

 by which one may learn how to evolve the facts of nature 

 from his own inner consciousness, it at least affords a 

 clue by which those facts, once they have been brought 

 to light by actual observation, may be recognized as 



