AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 285 



they may deceive him ; so, too, it seemed to me necessary 

 to investigate likewise the capabilities of our power of 

 thought. Here, also, we were concerned only with, a 

 series of questions of fact about which definite answers 

 could and must be given. We have distinct impres- 

 sions of the senses, in consequence of which we know 

 how to act. The success of the action usually agrees 

 with that which was to have been anticipated, but 

 sometimes also not, in what are called subjective im- 

 pressions. These are all objective facts, the laws regu- 

 lating which it will be possible to find. My principal 

 result was that the impressions of the senses are only 

 signs for the constitution of the external world, the in- 

 terpretation of which must be learned by experience. 

 The interest for questions of the theory of cognition, 

 had been implanted in me in my youth, when I had 

 often heard my father, who had retained a strong impres- 

 sion from Fichter's idealism, dispute with his colleagues 

 who believed in Kant or Hegel. Hitherto I have had 

 but little reason to be proud about those investigations. 

 For each one in my favour, I have had about ten 

 opponents ; and I have in particular aroused all the 

 metaphysicians, even the materialistic ones, and all 

 people of hidden metaphysical tendencies. But the 

 addresses of the last few days have revealed a host of 

 friends whom as yet I did not know ; so that in this 

 respect also I am indebted to this festivity for pleasure 



