Introduction to Von Hartmann 91 



and all this for what conclusion ? Not, as in the hands of 

 the natural theologians of the eighteenth century, to show 

 that the world is the result of design, of an intelligent, bene- 

 ficent Creator, but the manifestation of a Being whose only 

 predicates are negatives, whose very essence is to be un- 

 conscious. It is not only like ancient Athens, to an unknown, 

 but to an unknowing God, that modern Pessimism rears its 

 altar. Yet surely the fact that the motive principle of ex- 

 istence moves in a mysterious way outside our consciousness 

 no way requires that the All-one Being should be himself un- 

 conscious." 



I believe the foregoing to convey as correct an idea of 

 Von Hartmann's system as it is possible to convey, and 

 will leave it to the reader to say how much in common 

 there is between this and the lecture given in the preceding 

 chapter, beyond the fact that both touch upon unconscious 

 actions. The extract which will form my next chapter 

 is only about a thirtieth part of the entire " Philosophy 

 of the Unconscious," but it will, I beheve, suffice to substan- 

 tiate the justice of what Mr. Sully has said in the passages 

 above quoted. 



As regards the accuracy of the translation, I have 

 submitted all passages about which I was in the least 

 doubtful to the same gentleman who revised my transla- 

 tion of Professor Hering's lecture ; I have also given the 

 German wherever I thought the reader might be glad to 

 see it. 



