24 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pt. i. 



irradiated might thus alone catch glimpses of the external 

 reality. 



The later career of philosophy furnishes us with the same 

 kind of illustrations as its earlier stages. After its revival 

 in the Middle Ages, philosophy again proceeded to treat of 

 the same kind of questions as those which had hallled the 

 keenest and most subtle intellects of antiquity. In the eager 

 scrutiny of the nature of things, the scholastic metaphysicians 

 thought little of ascertaining the relations of coexistence and 

 succession among phenomena. Their disputes were about 

 quiddities, entities, occult virtues, and efficient causes. Nor 

 in modern times do we find that philosophy has been at all 

 disposed to recognize the limits which we have here found 

 ourselves obliged to impose upon it. On the other hand, 

 modern metaphysicians have generally proceeded upon the 

 tacit assumption that the possibilities of thought are co- 

 extensive with the possibilities of things, and that any train 

 of propositions which can be clearly conceived and logically 

 concatenated, must be true. It was upon this assumption 

 that Malebranche founded his theory of Occasional Causes, 

 and Leibnitz his doctrine of Pre-established Harmony. It 

 was upon this that Spinoza constructed a theory of the 

 universe, the most gigantic in conception, and the most 

 unJi'»<chingly logical in execution, of all metaphysical 

 theories. Upon this also, rests the Kantian doctrine of 

 Necessary Truths; and upon this most treacherous foun- 

 dation has been more recently built the lofty but unstable 

 structure of Hegelism. 



Since Bacon's time, it is true, there have appeared — for the 

 most part in England — a number of eminent thinkers, who, 

 asserting the relativity of human knowledge, and avowedly 

 renouncing the attempt to solve the mysteries of objective 

 existence, have occupied themselves with psychological pro- 

 blems. To these thinkers — Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume 

 Hartley, Brown, James Mill, Hamilton, and Mansel — a large 



