THE 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
I. THE PHILOSOPHY OF THOMAS CARLYLE.* 
By Constance Arden. 
“ L’idee de Dieu est une forme de l’idee de l’infini.” — M. Pasteur. 
“ Le but du monde, c’est l’idee ; mais je ne connais pas un cas ou 
l'idee se soit produite sans matiere.” — M. Renan. f 
HE distinction between deductive and inductive systems 
of philosophy is best represented by their practical 
interpretation of the terse command “ Know thyself .” 
To the former it means — “ Look inward ; take what seems 
best or most beautiful in thine own mind, and proclaim that 
as the Law of the Universe.” The latter replies— “ Not so. 
Look outward ; by unwearied research and rigorous analysis 
investigate the succession and coexistence of physical phe- 
nomena ; then turn inward, and apply the same method of 
inquiry to mental phenomena, noting their observed connec- 
tion with the material world ; till at length all seemingly 
heterogeneous knowledge is welded into one homogeneous 
and organic unity.” 
Doubtless all thought is originally deductive ; that is, it 
must begin by assuming the validity of certain primary 
mental operations. To reason in defence of reason is to 
perpetrate a pethtio principU f to reason against reason is to 
commit suicide. It is also true that colours, sounds, and 
odours, as perceived by us, are creations of the brain,— 
phantoms not less ideal than the flimsiest metaphysical ab- 
stractions. But impressions which succeed each other in 
a certain irreversible order, coexist according to certain fixed 
* Thomas Carlyle: a History of the first Forty Years of his Life. By 
James Anthony Froude, M.A. Longmans and Co. 
f Discours de Reception de M. Louis Pasteur. Reponse de M. Ernest Renan 
(Seance de l’Academie Framjaise du 27 Avril, 1882). Calmann L£vy, Editeur. 
Paris, 1882. 
VOL. IV. (THIRD SERIES). Y 
JUNE, 1882. 
