158 THE METHOD OF rHILOSOPHY. 



the admission of an evil and irrational principle in 

 the physical world, at war with the principle of 

 Good and Reason, to that of its supremacy in the 

 visible world, is only a small step, easily forced upon 

 the mind by the evils of life, and hence we find it 

 constantly and consistently taken in the Gnostic 

 and Neo- Platonic speculations. Thus we find the 

 abstract metaphysical method, in one of its develop- 

 ments, passing from the dualism of the Ideal and 

 the Real to their inherent conflict and to final 

 Pessimism. The separation of the physical and the 

 metaphysical, the %ft)pto-//,o9 which the acute criti- 

 cism of Plato's great disciple, Aristotle, detected 

 as the central flaw of the Platonic system, has 

 avenged itself by a fearful penalty. 



§ 6. But the metaphysical method may essay to 

 rid itself of the contrast of higher and lower by a 

 still more heroic remedy. Just as the pseudo- 

 metaphysical method yielded to the temptation ot 

 denying the higher, so conversely the metaphysical 

 method may yield to the temptation of ignoring the 

 lower. The metaphysician wings his flight to the 

 invisible, and loses sight of earth altogether. He 

 closes his eyes and hardens his heart to the facts of 

 life. He declares unreal whatever does not fit into 

 the narrow limits of his theories, on the ground that 

 whatever is real is rational, and leaving to his dis- 

 ciples a glittering legacy of magniloquent but un- 

 meaning phrases, he vanishes into the air before he 

 can be caught and questioned about the meaning 

 of his enchantments. But even he cannot outsoar 

 the atmosphere which supports him : in the end 

 the irresistible attraction of earth brings him down 



it in Plato, but have themselves one and all come to grief over 

 this same difficulty ? 



I 



