SCHELLING. 



105 



We here meet with a natural culmination of the 

 progress of the Evolution idea in philosophy, caused 

 by this departure from induction. 



For Schelling's method was deductive, and he 

 sought in deduction the main sources of human 

 knowledge. At the point of empiricism, where, 

 according to Cuvier, science ends, he held that true 

 science begins. By this he meant, that if tlie 

 human reason can question and answer upon its 

 own existence, and upon its relations to the Crea- 

 tor, it can also answer upon all Creation ; it can 

 comprehend and reconstruct the order of the Uni- 

 verse. " To philosophize upon Nature, it is to 

 create Nature." Because the hypothesis springs 

 from the mind, and is merely tested by experiment, 

 he places the direct fruits of hypothesis or deductive 

 science above inductive science. This might be 

 termed a reversion to Greek natural philosophy 

 or methods of thought brilliant but unproductive 

 of fixed results. 



