COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



the Idea comes into non-existence; it negatives 

 itself. " But the process does not stop there. 

 The negation itself must be negatived. By this 

 negation of its negation, the Idea returns to its 

 primitive force. But it is no longer the same. 

 It has developed all that it contained. It has 

 absorbed its contrary. Thus the negation of 

 the negation, by suppressing the negation, at the 

 same time preserves it." This side of the room 

 is the other side ; because, if you turn around, 

 this is that, and that is this ; and consequently 

 everything is its own opposite. Everything is 

 thus made easy. We may say, for instance, 

 that matter is infinitely divisible, because it fol- 

 lows ipso facto that it is not infinitely divisible, 

 and thus the Gordian Knot is cut. 



In the eye of science, as in the eye of com- 

 mon-sense, all this is supremely ridiculous — 

 the very enthronement of Unreason. Yet the 

 significance of the whole is lost if we fail to re- 

 member that Hegel was not a fool or a lunatic, 

 but was unquestionably one of the clearest, 

 strongest, and most consecutive reasoners that 

 the world has ever seen. Much has been said 

 of the unintelligibleness of Hegel,^ and many 



^ The story is current that on being asked to explain some 

 difficult passage written years before, the great metaphysician 

 gave it up in despair, saying : ** When I wrote that passage, 

 there were two who understood it, — God and myself. Now, 



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