PHILO 
enter into the fphere of our knowing faculty. This hy¬ 
pothecs of Kant, fo ft range at the firft glance, refolves 
difficulties which are irrefolvable by all other fyftems. 
Without this hypothefis, it is impoffible to account for 
the character of Neceffity impreffed upon all notions de¬ 
rived from Time and Space, and to comprehend how it 
happens that the boldelt flight of thought in the mod: 
abitraft conception cannot free itfelf from thefe qualities. 
Upon pure Space and Time , that is to fay, upon the intui¬ 
tion a priori of the forms inherent in our Senfitive Fa¬ 
culty, which are anterior to every external or internal 
impreffion, are founded the Mathematics; on pure Space, 
the certainty of the propofitions of Geometry; on pure 
Time, the fcience of Arithmetic. The Underftanding 
operates according to its own laws, which Kant calls 
Categories (in a different fenfe from that in which Arif- 
totle nfed the exprelfion) ; and which he makes amount 
to twelve, divided into four clafTesfi In that of Quan¬ 
tity are, i. Unity, a. Multitude. 3. Totality. To the 
clafs of Quality belong, 4. Reality. 5. Negation. 
6. Limitation. The clafs of Relation comprehends the 
correlative notions of, 7. Subffance and Accident. 8. Of 
Caufe and EffeCl. 9. Of Aftion and Re-aCtion. Laffly, 
under the head of Modality are, 10. Poflibility. 11. 
Exigence; and 12. Necellity. Whatever object we per¬ 
ceive, if its reprefentation is to enter into the feries of our 
knowledge, we muff necefl’arily apply to it all the Catego¬ 
ries at once. All our conceptions, all our judgments, 
obey the fame law. Laffly, the forms of Reafon, which 
unite and combine the reprefentations elaborated by the 
underftanding, forms which Kant calls pure Ideas, are : 
the idea of abfolute Sub fiance, (or the Soul, which forms 
the foundation of PJ'ychology \) the Idea of abfolute Caufe, 
(on which is founded Cofmology ;) and the Idea of ubfolute 
Concurrence, (which gives rife to Theology.) Thefe ideas 
have no other power or ufe, according to Kant’s fyftem, 
than to excite man to look beyond proximate caules, to 
afeend pcrfeveringly from link to link, even to lengthen 
indefinitely this chain, to extend inceffantly his obferva- 
tions and his refearches, never to confider them as com¬ 
plete, their aggregate as fufiiciently united and vaft, or 
their application fufiiciently ufeful and various. Here 
Lome of Kant’s molt noted difciples have turned afide 
from his path. Inltead of attributing to a neceffity of 
reafon the operations by which man eftablilhes an interior 
unity, or his own foul an exterior unity, or matter, and 
rifes at lalt to ubfolute unity, the foundation of every thing 
that is contingent, they lee in the idea of the abjolute a 
real perception, and imagine that reafon perceives the 
Jblute, the fundamental, Being, the real and primitive 
principle of all phenomena, as truly as the Intellect and 
the Senfitive Faculty perceive the phenomena; forgetting 
that to thefe faculties the matter is given. Not content¬ 
ed with that human and fubjedlive reality which Kant 
had affigned to man as his real patrimony, they wiftied to 
penetrate into the field which, according to Kantefian 
principles, is interdicted to him. The pure adherents of 
thefe principles, therefore, juftly reproach the fchools of 
Fichte and Schelling with milconceiving the limits efta- 
bliHied by Critical Philofophy, and with reftoring to fpe- 
culative reafon its confidence in thofe ambitious efforts 
and thofe tranfeendent conquefts, the folly and vanity of 
which the “ Critic" had demonftrated ; for, if we admit 
the analyfis of the intellectual faculties therein ftated as 
accurate, the fundamental principles of which have been 
adopted even by the authors in queftion, it is evident that 
the only effedt that can<refult from the exercife of thefe 
faculties is a world of phenomena, or of appearances, 
which is entirely fubjeftive, and of which it is impoffible 
to fay whether it in any manner refembles the real world 
of the things in themfelves; (that is to fay, cor.lidered in 
their abfolute exiltence, and independently of our mode 
of reprefenting them;) the noumeua, which we have no 
means of perceiving fuch as they really are. We receive 
imprellions from them ; but thefe impreflions, obtained at 
Vol. XX. No. 1358. 
SOPHY. s 153 
firft by the fenfitive faculty, clothe themfelves with its 
forms, Time and Space, become extended obje&s, bodies, 
&c. Thefe forms have, without doubt, reality for ns ; and 
the things are, for us, really imprefled with them. In the 
fame manner a feal, which could not come in contaft with 
the wax without communicating to it the impreffion of the 
head of Minerva, would never fee the wax, if vve may be per¬ 
mitted to endow the feal with perception, under any other 
form but that of a fubftance prefenting on its furface the 
head of Minerva. But, fhould the feal therefore imagine 
that the wax could only exift under this form, (hould the 
looking-glafs fuppofe that the obje&s reflected by its fur- 
face are really in themfelves void of thicknefs, they would 
commit the manifeft error of conionnArngfubjeSlive and 
phenomenal reality with objective and abfolute reality. To 
the impreflions invefted with the form of our Senfitive Fa¬ 
culty, the Understanding gives an additional form ; it 
fubjects them to general laws, which are in fad its own, 
and prefents them to us as connected by the law of Caufe 
and EffcB, by ASion and Re-aClion ; in fiiort, by all the 
laws comprifed under the 12 Categories. The reader 
would ‘all into a great error, (hould he fuppofe that thefe 
faculties which, according to Kant, are innate difpofitioris, 
that is, primitively inherent in our Knowing Faculty, 
refemble the innate ideas conceived by Plato, and after 
him by Defcartes, or thofe which Locke fabricated in 
order to combat them. The manner in which Leibnitz 
conceived them in his “ New JSJfays” is the only one 
that approaches to the pure and actual forms of the mind, 
as conceived by Kant. Speculative or Theoretical Reafon, 
ultimately feizing on the impreflions modified by the 
underftanding, and prefenting them to us by means of 
the notion of the abfolute or infinite, drawn from the forms 
ot its activity, as abfolute realities, or as an abfolute 
whole, raifes them to the rank of Ideas in the fenfe that 
Plato had given to this expreffion, and which Kant has 
reltored to it. In this fyftem Reafon adds nothing, ab- 
folutely nothing, to the impreflions that can fupply us 
with materials for a bridge to be thrown over the vaft 
abyfs between the phenomenal or ftbje&ivc world, and the 
objective, or world of things in themfelves. Defiring to 
free itfelf from thefe limits by a tranfeendent flight, Reafon 
exhaufts itfelf in fruitlefs efforts; indignant at being 
confined to the fenfes and to perception, which rep refs 
its foarings, Kant compares Reafon thus difeontented to 
a dove complaining of the re(iffance of the very element 
that fupports her, perfuading herfelf, that if the air ceafed 
to obftruCt her, (he fhould fly much better in a vacuum. 
“Kant having given to the pure and fubjeCtive laws of 
our Knowing Faculty, and to the in veftigations of which 
they are the objeCt, the name of tranfcendental, his doc¬ 
trines have received the appellation of Transcendental 
Philosophy. We (hall here conclude our (ketch of that 
philofophy, as its author has given it in his Critic of 
Pure Reason, a production of the human intellect in 
which it has dilplayed the greateft boldnefs, profundity, 
and independence. The whole aim of this philofophy is, 
to examine the poflibility, the nature, and the bounds, of 
human knowledge; and it reprefents this as ffriCtly con¬ 
fined to the territory of our fenfible perceptions. Ulufion 
and error immediately arife when we pretend to apply 
this fubjedive mode of perceiving to the things in them¬ 
felves. Kant compares the domain which it is poflible 
for us to know, and to explore, to a cheerful and fruitful 
ifland, but furrounded by ail ocean covered with impene¬ 
trable fogs and p. barrier of infurmountable rocks. If 
Theoretical Reafon, inftead of limiting its operations and 
its pretenlions to the office of aflifting the other knowing 
faculties in completely exploring and cultivating the (oil 
of this in fular habitation, direCts its ambitious flight upon 
the wings of its pure ideas to other regions ; if (lie fup- 
pofes (he has the power, like a fkilful pilot, to navigate 
the tempeftuons feas which furround the circumfcribed 
abode affigned to man by his Creator; (lie will find nothing 
but chimeras and dangers, and will lofe in vain attempts 
R r that 
