148 PHILO 
“ The author here finds it necefl'ary to fay a few words 
concerning his own experience, in which he had occafion 
to make himfelf better acquainted with the difficulty of 
penetrating the real meaning of the Critic of Pure Rea¬ 
fon, and the danger of milling it, than moll of the readers 
of that work. He would gladly decline the difagreeable 
talk of fpeaking about himfelf, if he had any hope of 
making what he has yet to fay, refpeCting the difficulty 
of underftanding the Kantefian fyftem, fufiiciently intel¬ 
ligible in any other manner. 
“ He is of opinion that he pofleffed the requifite preli¬ 
minary knowledge, when,in 1785, he began to ftudy that 
fyltem. For ten years fpeculative philofophy had been 
his principal ftudy; for three years he had held leCtures 
on the fyftem of Leibnitz; and the works of its great 
founder, as well as thofe of his worthy antagonift Locke, 
were known to him, not merely from the modern philo- 
fophical productions of his own country. To this prepa¬ 
ration of the head, in regard to which he might poffibly 
have but little advantage over tnoft of the readers of 
Kant’s works, was added, in his cafe, the urgent neceflity 
of recovering in fome new track that peace of mind which 
he had loft in the field of fpeculation, and which he had 
fought in vain in all the ways with which he w'as ac¬ 
quainted. By his education, religion was made not only 
the principal, but in fome meafure the foie, bufinefs of his 
earlier years. Brought up afcetically to be an afcetic, he 
purfued what he called the work of his falvation with all 
the youthful vivacity of his difpofition ; and thus feelings, 
which cannot be entirely ftrange to any human bread:, 
but which are fo unequally favoured by the external cir- 
cumftances of individuals, grew up in his to ftrong and 
unextinguilhable propenfities. The philofophical criti- 
cifm of tafte, to which he was early led to direCt his ftu- 
dies by his fondnefs for poetry, conduced him unawares 
into the field of fpeculative philofophy ; and fcarcely had 
he advanced a few fteps in it, when he felt with horror 
the ground of his happinefs Ihaken beneath him. To no 
purpofe did he endeavour to retreat behind the bulwarks 
of myfticifm, and to avoid a conflict with doubts, which, 
with menaces and invitations, furrounded him on all 
fides. It was impoftible for him to believe blindly 
as before; and he was foon compelled to furrender 
at difcretion to the foes of his peace, which promifed 
to return, with ufury what they had robbed him of. 
Metaphyfics now became the principal occupation of a 
life of folitude and leifure : but at length, after a period 
of feveral years, during which he had fucceftively adopted 
and abandoned all the four leading fyftems, the only con- 
ciufion to which he came was, that though metaphyfics 
furnilhed more than one plan to pacify firft his head and 
then his heart, yet it had not one to offer that was capa¬ 
ble of fatisfying the ferious demands of both at once. 
The painful ftate of mind which was the natural confe- 
quence of this conviction, and the defire to put an end to 
it, let it coft what it might, were the primary and the 
ftrongeft motives of the zeal and affiduity with which he 
applied himfelf to the Critic of Pure Reafon, after he had 
discovered in it, as he thought, an endeavour to render 
the knowledge of the fundamental truths of religion and 
morality independent of all metaphyfics. The perfeCt lei¬ 
fure which he enjoyed during his refidence at Weimar, 
confirmed him in his refolution not to defift till he had 
folved ail the enigmas which he met with on almoft 
every page of that profound work. The more he reflects 
on the immenfe difficulties with which he had to ftruggle 
in this purfuit, and by which he was as often dilheartened 
as ftimulated, the more he is convinced, that, but for 
this leifure and that necefiity of his head and heart, he 
Ihould have been wholly incapable of the talk. After the 
firft extremely-attentive perufal, he perceived nothing 
but faint fparks of light glimmering amidft a darknefs 
that was not wholly difpelled at the fifth. For above a 
year he abftained almoft entirely from all other books; he 
SOPH Y. 
noted the axioms which he thought he had underftood 
and thofe which he had in reality not comprehended, and 
failed in more than one attempt to abridge the whole. 
All that he at firft collected in this manner confided of 
fragments, which feemed to him to be partly borrowed 
from other fyftems, and in part abfolutely irreconcileable. 
Hence he can very eafily comprehend how it happens, 
that certain adverfaries of the Critic of Pure Reafon de¬ 
clare what they have underftood in it to be old, and what 
they are fenfihle they have not underftood to be abfurd. 
But, as he diligently continued on the one hand to extraCt 
frelh matter from the Work, and on the other to arrange 
thele extracts, the fragments were gradually transformed 
into members fitting to one another; what before feemed 
impenetrable obfcurities and decided abfurdities difap- 
peared ; and at length the whole was difplayed before him in 
the full light of an evidence which afionijhed him the more, 
the lefs his former experience and principles authorifed him 
to fuppofe it poffible in fpeculative philofophy. 
“ YVere he to relate with the molt confcientious impar¬ 
tiality, and without the flighted: embellilhment, what he 
has found, at the conclulion of his inveftigation in and 
through the Kantefian fyftem, molt of his readers would 
regard all he had to fay as the mere figures of fpeecfi and 
the panegyrical declamations of a fanguine enthufiaft. 
He therefore contents himfelf with declaring that, by 
means of thefe newly-acquired principles, all hisphilofo-' 
phic doubts have been anfwered in a manner perfectlyJatisfao- 
tory to both head and heart, in a manner for ever decifve, 
though wholly unexpected; and that, for his own part, he is 
thoroughly convinced that, by means of the Critic of Pure 
Reason, one of the mofi general, remarkable, and beneficial , 
revolutions that ever took place in the ideas of mankind mufi 
be effected; a revolution which, fo far from being retarded 
by the numerous and celebrated adverfaries of that work, will 
on the contrary be much more effentially promoted and accele¬ 
rated by them, than it has hitherto been by all the exertions of 
its friends." 
It is indeed lingular that Reinhold, the celebrated au¬ 
thor of the preceding oblifrvations, ihould be'fetdown 
by Mr.. Dug3ld Stewart as a philofopher who has con¬ 
founded and mifunderllood the great diftinCtion fo hap¬ 
pily marked out by Kant between Intuition, Concep¬ 
tion, and Idea. Thefe three notions are the natural 
and genuine refults arifing from the three original mental 
faculties, Senfe, Underftanding, and Reafon-, and, if the 
precife and accurate definitions given of them by the 
founder of the New Philofophy can in any way be im¬ 
pugned, altered, or refolved into one another, then 
indeed muft his fyftem wholly vanifli. But what is Hill 
more remarkable, Mr. Stewart’s accufation againft 
Reinhold of confounding thefe notions, is founded upon 
a Latin verfion of the German work above mentioned, in 
the Introduction to which the author ftates that his book 
w’as written for the exprefs purpofe of explaining and 
inculcating the ejfenlial and immutable diftinCtion between 
thefe fundamental notions. (Difl'ert. II. 192.) 
It will be a happy circutnftance if the prophecy with 
which Reinhold concludes his remarks on the “Critic” 
Ihould be verified, namely “ that the promulgation and 
eftablilhment of the beneficial revolution produced by the 
new fyftem will be more eflentially promoted and accele¬ 
rated by its adverfaries than it has hitherto been by all 
the exertions of its friends.” 
We will for the prefent leave refleCtive Germany, and, 
palling over to fprightly France, endeavour to draw an 
inftance from a native of that gay and volatile nation, of 
the pollibiiity of not only comprehending the abftrufe 
Critic of Pure Reafon, but entering fully into the merits 
of all the lcientific works of its author, and giving a moft 
connected, faithful, and luminous, account of each, fo that 
the reader may form a correCt judgment of their contents. 
The author to whom I allude purfues this interefting ex¬ 
planation to the very laft work produced by our fage, en¬ 
titled 
