90 
BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 
mopolitan celebrity, under the title of the “Soul in 
Nature." 
In this work, the great Danish philosopher employs the 
reasoning which scientific facts supply in the defence of 
that part of the popular faith which asserts the universal 
existence of spirit, or rather the universal prevalence of 
thought in Nature. As far as it is possible to reduce his 
views to the compass of a short essay, let us endeavour 
to do so, and with a hope that such a reduction of ample 
particulars into brief generalities will not, in any way, mar 
the profound reasonings of so genuine a philosopher, 
First, then, how do we gain a knowledge of the outer 
world ? Not surely by the senses only; for in our quick 
views of things we apprehend their meaning readily by 
merely viewing portions of them, inferring the remainder 
of the conditions which are requisite to a complete appre¬ 
ciation of the object. We have a perfect idea of a tree, 
with branches, leaves, bark, buds, and fruit, from a 
mere glimpse of a portion of the trunk through a window 
or crevice; and we recognize a book, as a look, by merely 
laying our hands on a portion of it in the dark. What 
then ? why;—inasmuch as we do not grasp the things 
themselves, but infer their existence by mere glimpses of 
them, so we are indebted for the knowledge of the world 
to the impressions which things are capable of producing 
upon us, such impressions being converted into thoughts 
by union with the collective experience with which former 
impressions have furnished us. Now, to make an impres¬ 
sion on a being capable of thought, requires in the object 
an active existence; but a stone, lying still by the road¬ 
side, appears the deadest thing, the most immobile and 
