906 
come to the mind and prefent thofe objekts 
as exiftme out of vs, though we feel 
and ean only feel within us, was but us, 
peric&tly refelved by the phi ilofgpher of 
Konig fberg. But inflead of proclaiming 
#t to be unanfwe rable, inflead of acknow- 
edging that this is the my fer y of our ex- 
itenee, that it is one of thofe primitive 
fais which we are obliged to admit, and 
Beyond which it is impofible to afcend 
ether in igi aph yfies or natural philofo- 
phy, he was delirous of refolving the dif- 
fiealty, and explored anew the aby fies of 
thought, till be diftovered a kind of ex- 
planation. ‘* ‘The J,)” days she, in, the 
firange language which he has ¢reated, 
*: originally and abfoluteiy forms its own 
exiftence.. Every thing elfe exifts only 
in as far as it is placed within the J, in as 
far as the I transfers to it a portion of its 
own reality. This J itrives to extend it- 
£1F on every fide; its ideal exittence mu 
fill infinity, but in its real exiftence it is 
every where limited. To the vulgar man 
thefe limits are objeéts; to the philofo- 
pher they are purely mathematical fur- 
faces, which only teach us. the modifica- 
tions of our nature ; we place them be- 
yond us only by a particular law of our 
thought, we grant them an exiftence in- 
dependent, and fimilar to our own, only 
becaufe we imagine that we act againit 
them and experience their re-action. It is 
thus that we form an active Not I; but in 
teality thought and exiftence, the fubject 
and the object, the active principle and the 
paflive principle, are but one and the fame 
in fpeculation.”” Thele ideas are de- 
veloped ina very thick volume which the 
author has- entitled Wiffen{cbafiflebre, 
«¢ The Do&trine of Science,” and by which 
be has fucceeded in caufing his partifans to 
regard his ideas as the true foundation of 
the vaft edifice of human knowledge, 
which, before his time, refted only on air. 
His antagonifts, on the contrary, main- 
teined, that his ideas deprived that eGifice 
of all folidity and rendered it purely aérial ; 
that the incomprehenfible communication 
of the J and the Not I, in his dottrine, 
paved the way for an idealiim {till more 
incomprehenfible ; and that all the bafes 
ef morality and even the exiftence of the 
Deity were overturned by this fyftem. 
The latter reproach drew upon Fichte a 
kind of reprimand from the curators of the 
univerfity of Jena; he gave in his refigna- 
tion, which was ‘accepted ; he then de- 
fended his principles and repel ed the im- 
putation of Atheifm, by accufing his op- 
ponents of idolatry ; but he was obliged 
On ihe prefent State of Philofaphy in Germany. 
[OAs 
to refign his fun&tions as a profeffor, and 
retired to Berlin, where he isat the prefent 
moment employed in abridging and im- 
proving the above-mentioned work. 
The {chool of Fichte made way for that 
of Schelling. This new matter, at the 
fame time a metaphyfican and naturalift, 
at firft extended and developed the ideas of * 
his predeceflor, as applied to the natural 
{ciences, and it is only within this fhort 
time that he has declared himfelf at iffue 
with bim. Schelling is reproached with 
being almoft always in fufpenfe between 
idealifm, realiim, and even raterialiim. 
It may be faid that, in this reipect, he has 
only availed himfelt of the latitude granted 
to the preceding fyfiem. But it muft be 
admitted that Schelling has carried to 
greater lengths that {pecies of contradic- 
tion and the other inconveniences of the 
common doctrine, by applying it, as F 
have already ob{crved, to univerfal nature, 
defcending to the minuteft details, where. 
as his predeceflor confined himéfelf to ge- 
neral points. The following fingular 
phrafe prefixed to his natural philefophy, 
will not be read without aftonifiment : 
“< Since to philofophixe on Nature hgnifies 
nothing elfe than to create wature, the 
point at which we can make the activity of 
nature begin muft: firft be difcovered.”” 
The reader's furprize will be redoubled 
when he finds, in this work, the whcle 
fy {em of general phyfics deduced @ priors 
from certain propofitions given as axioms 
of thought. He will be amazed to feel 
himfelt, as it were, carried far above the 
earth by the audacious flight of this author, 
and to fee him treat of experimental phy- 
fics as a nebulous region, ‘through which we 
ought to haften in order to arrive at the 
real light. The eye will however, fome- 
times repofe with pleafure on lefs illufory 
points of view, on ingenious explanaticns 
of phenomena which appear at firft fight 
extravagant. Among thefe bold ideas 
there are fome concerning which, in the 
more advanced ftate of {cience only one 
opinion will be entertained; they will 
greatly fimplify the manner of obferving 
the courfe of nature, and will facilitate 
the explanation of feveral phenomena, 
which are ftill obf{cure to our literati, 
Schelling excelled Fichte in a method 
which is now proclaimed by their follow- 
ers as the only true one; it confifts in 
treating the univerfe as a fynoptic table ; 
in conftantly oppofing faéts, contrary to 
each other, and feeking the general fact, 
the common principle by which they are 
united, : 
This 
