WANT OF PHILOSOPBICAL CULTURE. 349 



And again : — 



Nature liaa neither kernel nor shell, 

 It is she that is All and All at once.* 



What is even more detrimental to the general understand- 

 ing of nature as a whole than this one-sided tendency, is 

 the want of a philosophical culture, and this applies to most 

 of the naturalists of the present day. The various errors of 

 the earlier speculative nature-philosophy made during the 

 first thirty years of our century, have brought the whole of 

 philosophy into such bad repute with the exact empirical 

 naturalists, that they live in the strange delusion that it 

 is possible to erect the edifice of natural science out of mere 

 facts, without their philosophic connection ; in short, out of 

 mere knowledge, without the understanding of it. But as 

 a purely speculative and absolutely philosophical system, 

 which does not concern itself with the indispensable founda- 

 tion of empirical facts, becomes a castle in the air, which 

 the first real experiment throws to the winds ; so, on the 

 other hand, a purely empirical system, constructed of 

 nothing but facts, remains a disorderly heap of stones, 

 which will never deserve the name of an edifice. Bare 

 facts established by experience are nothing but rude stones, 

 and without their thoughtful valuation, without their philo- 

 sophic connection, no science can be established. As I 

 have already tried to impress upon my reader, the strong 

 edifice of true monistic science, or what is the same thing, 

 the Science of Nature, exists only by the closest interaction, 

 and the reciprocal penetration of philosophy and empirical 

 knowledge. 



* Natnr hat weder Kern noch Schale, 

 Alles ist 3ie mit einem Male. 



