184 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pt. l. 



plaint, with especial reference to Hegel, has been made by 

 Schopenhauer. 1 



Again, let us not fail to observe that in characterizing 

 Hegel's logic of contradictories as repugnant to common- 

 sense, we urge an objection which, however valid it may 

 seem to us, would to one in Hegel's position have no weight 

 whatever. For Hegel's fundamental postulate is that deduc- 

 tions from d priori premises furnished by pure reason have 

 an incomparably higher validity than inductions from pre- 

 mises supplied by sensible experiences ; and consequently, 

 while we are seeking to found philosophy in common-sense 

 — or in science, which is simply common-sense rectified, 

 extended, and methodized, — Hegel, on the other hand, enter- 

 tains no such purpose. Philosophy, with him, lies quite out 

 of the range of common-sense, — which is merely the organi- 

 zation of sensible experiences, — and if there be conflict 

 between the deliverances of the two, it is common-sense 

 that must go to the wall. With this perfectly logical, 

 though practically absurd, conclusion, we may fitly compare 

 Schelling's declaration that philosophic truth is to be 

 attained only through the exercise of a faculty superior to 

 reason ; which faculty Schelling called " Intellectual Intui- 

 tion." This " was not supposed to be a faculty common to 

 all men ; on the contrary, it was held as the endowment 

 only of a few of the privileged : it was the faculty for philo- 

 sophizing. Schelling expresses his disdain for those who 

 talk about not comprehending the highest truths of philo- 

 sophy. ' Eeally,' he exclaims, ' one sees not wherefore 

 Philosophy should pay any attention whatever to Incapacity. 

 It is better rather that we should isolate Philosophy from 

 all the ordinary routes, and keep it so separated from 



1 Schopenhauer, indeed, quite loses his patience over Hegel's verbal leger- 

 demain, and calls him a "geisrlosen, unwissenden, Unsinn schmierenden, die 

 Kopfe durch beispiellos hohlen Wortkram von Grund aus und auf imraer des- 

 organisireuden Phi'osopliaster." (') I quote from memory, and cannot HOW 

 recover the passage where this outbi eak occurs. 



