8 ON THE RELATION OF 



that the philosophers were crazy. And so it came aboiif. 

 that men of science began to lay some stress on the 

 banishment of all philosophic influences from their work ; 

 while some of them, including men of the greatest acute- 

 ness, went so far as to condemn philosophy altogether, 

 not merely as useless, but as mischievous dreaming. 

 Thus, it must be confessed, not only were the illegitimate 

 pretensions of the Hegelian system to subordinate to 

 itself all other studies rejected, but no regard was paid 

 to the rightful claims of philosophy, that is, the criticism 

 of the sources of cognition, and the definition of the 

 functions of the intellect. 



In the moral sciences the course of things was dif- 

 ferent, though it ultimately led to almost the same 

 result. In all branches of those studies, in theology, 

 politics, jurisprudence, aesthetics, philology, there started 

 up enthusiastic Hegelians, who tried to reform their 

 several departments in accordance with the doctrines of 

 their master, and, by the royal road of speculation, to 

 reach at once the promised land and gather in the 

 harvest, which had hitherto only been approached by 

 long and laborious study. And so, for some time, a hard 

 and fast line was drawn between the moral and the 

 physical sciences ; in fact, the very name of science was 

 often denied to the latter. 



The feud did not long subsist in its original intensity. 

 The physical sciences proved conspicuously, by a brilliant 

 series of discoveries and practical applications, that they 

 contained a liealthy germ of extraordinary fertility ; it 

 was impossible any longer to withhold from them recog- 

 nition and respect. And even in other departments of 

 science, conscientious investigators of facts soon pro- 

 tested j^ gainst the over-bold flights of speculation. Still, 

 it cannot be overlooked that the philosophy of Hegel and 

 Schelling did exercise a beneficial influence ; since their 



