SPECTRES OCCASIONED BY DISEASED I'T'? 



Cited, and blood To quick in circulation, either misfortune Narrative and 

 might have eafily befallen me. But I confidered the phan- "'^'^a'^'^^s on 

 tafms that hovered around me as what they really were, J^'.^^b'/nrr^oa, 

 namely, the efFeds of difeafe; and made them fubfervient to indifpofitlon. 

 my obfervations, becaufe I confider obfervation and refleaion 

 as the bafis of all rational pbilofophy. 



Our modern German philofophers, will not allow that 

 obfervation ought to be admitted in theoretical philofophy. 

 Hence arofe Kants' Tranfcendental Idealifm, which at laft 

 degenerated into the grofs enthufiaftic idealifm ; which is 

 found in Fichte's writings. This philofopher confiders all 

 external objetSls as our own produdions. " What we con- 

 fider as things independent of us are," according to him, 

 " no more than our own creatures, which we fear, admire 

 " and defire ; we believe our fate to be dependent on a 

 " (hadow, which the fingle breath of a free being might 

 " deftroy." Thefe are Mr. Fichte's own words*. 



The mere pidure in the mind, without external experience* 

 would never be fnfficient to afford us a convincing proofs 

 whether we faw phenomena or phantafms. The critical 

 philofophers maintain, that knowledge deduced from obferva- 

 tion is merely empirick, and therefore not to be depended on; 

 it is perhaps true that nature has affigned us no greater 

 certainty than this refpeding our ideas. But could we be truly 

 confcious of our grounds of reafon, if the appearances called 

 external, which follow laws that do not depend on the re- 

 prefentations in our mind, did not continually agree with thofe 

 reprefentations ? Are we potreHed of any other criterion ? 

 Does not the great theoretical philofopher, when he fees 

 every thing yellow, conclude that his eye is jaundiced ; or 

 when every thing appears black to him, that his brain is 

 afFedled ? In thefe cafes he does not truft his imagination or 

 mental powers alone. 



I may here apply the confideration of the illufions which 

 I witnefTed. I am well aware that no general conclufions 

 can be drawn from a fingle inftance ; but fliil the experience 

 of a fingle cafe, if accurately obferved and faithfully defcribed, 

 is fufficient to deftroy hypothefes which have too long been 

 honoured with the name of fyftems. 



* Fichte's Appeal^ p. 44. 

 Vol. VL— November, 1S03. N According 



