356 THE RIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE. 



Kant, that the moral world is quite independent of 

 the physical, and is suhject to very different laws ; 

 hence a man's conscience, as the basis of his moral 

 life, must also be quite independent of our scientific 

 knowledge of the world, and must be based rather on 

 his religious faith. On that theory the study of the 

 moral world belongs to practical reason, while that of 

 nature, or of the physical world, is referred to pure or 

 theoretical reason. This unequivocal and conscious 

 dualism of Kant's philosophy was its greatest defect ; 

 it has caused, and still causes, incalculable mischief. 

 First of all the " critical Kant " had built up the 

 splendid and marvellous palace of pure reason, and 

 convincingly proved that the three great central 

 dogmas of metaphysics — a personal God, free will, 

 and the immortal soul — had no place whatever in it, 

 and that no rational proof could be found of their 

 reality. Afterwards, however, the " dogmatic Kant " 

 superimposed on this true crystal palace of pure 

 reason the glittering, ideal castle in the air of practical 

 reason, in which three imposing church-naves were 

 designed for the accommodation of those three great 

 mystic divinities. When they had been put out at 

 the front door by rational knowledge they returned by 

 the back door under the guidance of irrational faith. 



The cupola of his great cathedral of faith was 

 crowned by Kant with his curious idol, the famous 

 * ' categorical imperative . ' ' According to it, the demand 

 of the universal moral law is unconditional, inde- 

 pendent of any regard to actuality or potentiality. It 

 runs : " Act at all times in such wise that the maxim 

 (or the subjective law of thy will) may hold good as a 

 principle of a universal law." On that theory all 

 normal men would have the same sense of duty. 



