128 THE GENESIS OF SCIENCE. 



It is needless to proceed further vdih the analysis ; else 

 might we detail the steps by which Oken arrives at the 

 conclusions that " the planets are coagulated colours, for 

 they are coagulated light ; that the sphere is the expanded 

 nothing ; " that gravity is " a weighty nothing, a heavy es- 

 sence, striving towards a centre ; " that " the earth is. the 

 identical, water the indifferent, air the different ; or the 

 first the centre, the second the radius, the last the peri- 

 phery of the general globe or of fire." To comment on 

 them w^ould be nearly as absurd as are the propositions 

 themselves. Let us pass on to another of the German sys- 

 tems of knowledge — that of Hegel. 



The simple fact that Hegel puts Jacob Boehme on a par 

 with Bacon, suffices alone to show that his stand-point is 

 far remote from the one usually regarded as scientific : so 

 far remote, indeed, that it is not easy to find any common 

 basis on which to found a criticism. Those who hold that 

 the mind is moulded into conformity with surrounding 

 things by the agency of surrounding things, are necessarily 

 at a loss how to deal with those, who, like Schelling and 

 Hegel, assert that surrounding things are solidified mind — 

 that Nature is " petrified intelligence." However, let ug 

 briefly glance at Hegel's classification. He divides philoso- 

 phy into three parts : — 



1. Logic^ or the science of the idea in itself, the pure 

 idea. 



2. The Philosophy of Nature^ or the science of the idea 

 considered under its other form — of the idea as Xature. 



3. The Philosophy of the Mind^ or the science of the 

 idea m its return to itself. 



Of these, the secpnd is divided into the natural sciences, 

 commonly so called ; so that in its more detailed form the 

 series runs thus : — Logic, Mechanics, Physics, Organic Phv- 

 sics, Pbychology. 



Now, if we believe with Hegel, first, that tlionglit is tie 



