120 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY, [pt. i. 



time preserves it." Tliis 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. Every- 

 thing is thus made easy. We may say, for instance, that matter 

 is infinitely divisible, because it follows 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 common- sense, all 

 this is supremely ridiculous, — the very enthronement of 

 Unreason. Yet the significance of the whole is lost if we 

 fail to remember 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, 1 and many 

 a witticism has been made at his expense. But the unintel- 

 ligibleness of Hegel does not result from indistinctness of 

 thought or slovenliness of expression. On the contrary, it 

 seems to me that his thoughts — or rather, perhaps, the 

 symbols of his thoughts — are very distinct, and that his 

 style of expression is remarkably simple, clear, and direct. 

 When by chance he treats of sublunary topics, his style is 

 often as pithy and lucid as M. Taine's. And had the con- 

 tents of his thinking consisted of propositions formed from 

 the colligation of sensible experiences, instead of propositions 

 built up of empty verbal symbols, he would no doubt have 

 taken rank among the greatest of the teachers of mankind. 

 The world-wide difference between Hegel and Mr. Spencer, for 

 example, does not consist chiefly in the fact that the latter is 

 a clearer, more patient, and more logical reasoner ; it consists 

 chiefly in the fact that the symbols with which Mr. Spencer 

 does his thinking are translateable in terms of sensible 

 experience, while the symbols employed by Hegel are not 



1 The stoiy 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 aud 

 myself. Now, alas, God alone understands it 1 " A myth, no doubt, but 

 erudely characteristic, like most myths. 



