LATER GERMAN PHILOSOPHY 153 



we consider life in its whole, with the ideal in it, 

 or only in its part of actual stubborn fact. The 

 mere fact, in itself, must always seem bad ; but it 

 must be remembered that this very badness is the 

 shock of contrast with the ever present ideal ; and, 

 after all, the optimistic solution has to come from 

 moral energy. Play into fact with aspiration after 

 the ideal and enthusiasm for it, with the firm resolve 

 to transform fact into a semblance of the ideal pat- 

 tern, and the reward will come in a gentler toler- 

 ance of defect and a calmer contentment. "The 

 freer our career in the metaphysical region, the more 

 is our world-view pervaded by sentiment, and the 

 more is it ojDtimistic ; but the more ethical, also, 

 is its reaction on our doings and bent. We are not 

 only to reconstruct the actual according to the ideal, 

 but are to console ourselves for the perception of 

 what actually is, by contemplating what ought to be 

 and might be." 



The transition hence to ethics is natural and 

 obvious : the highest ethical maxim is, Seme the 

 Whole. But the Whole here intended is the entire 

 complex of experience, with the active ideal in it. 

 " Work upon fact with recognition of its stubborn 

 reality, but in the light of the ideal," is what the 

 maxim means. We cannot know that we are free 

 or immortal, but we cannot help assuming we are 

 the one, and hoping we may be the other. And, 



