CHAPTER XX.

ON METAPHYSICAL WRITERS IN GERMANY WHO IMMEDIATELY PRECEDED AND FOLLOWED KANT, TILL THE TERMINATION OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

ALMOST all the German writers who flourished within thirty years previous to the appearance of Kant's "Kritik der Reinen Vernunft," adopted the system of Wolff, with here and there a sprinkling of the doctrines of Leibnitz, Descartes, and Locke. There is little in such treatises of what may be called speculation or theory. They chiefly come under the category of elementary and scholastic works; written with the express view of furnishing to students at the various seminaries of education, the requisite prescribed portion of knowledge on the science of mind.

After the publication of Kant's system, the whole of the metaphysical literati of Germany enlisted themselves under his banner. Their zeal, their industry, and their proselyting spirit, knew no bounds; and criticisms, abridgments, summaries,

abstracts, and commentaries, of and concerning the philosophy of "Pure Reason," crowded the libraries and book stalls throughout the length and breadth of the land. A man who did not know, or pretended not to know, the "Critical Philosophy" in all its bearings, was considered beyond the pale of literary civilization. He was at once an object of commiseration and contempt. Nothing could have been more gratifying to the literary ambition of the "Critical" Sage, than this universal and enthusiastic reception of his doctrines; so far at least as his own country was concerned. Here everything was admiration, harmony, and rapture. Nothing more was needed to fill up the German's cup of joy to the very brim, than to extend the knowledge of this "Pure Reason" to other portions of the civilized world; to concentrate its rays upon the mind of other less favoured nations; and to make their men of learning the admirers and cultivators of that system, which was to banish doubt and darkness for ever from the intellectual regions of human nature.

But alas! other nations remained long deaf to the charmer, though "charming never so wisely." The "Criticisms of Pure Reason" excited their surprise, but never took hold of their understandings. Had all the coldness and indifference of the whole Northern people of Europe been concentrated into one focus, it could not have surpassed, in degree, the apathy displayed in Britain towards the disquisitions of Emmanuel Kant. Nothing, in fact, could be more heartless and discouraging. Though

his system was adorned with an English dress, yet it failed to attract the sympathies of the learned. There are in every country, and Great Britain has her full share of them, a number of persons whose minds have a strong affinity for whatever is quaint and obscure, and who charitably set down for absolute wisdom what they cannot comprehend. But even among this particular class of men, the "Critical Philosophy" failed to make a general impression. Its lineaments were too uncouth and forbidding even for their unnatural and diseased appetite for strange sights and philosophical wonders. Nor did the Kantian hypothesis seem more inviting to the lively temperaments of our French neighbours. The sprightly volatility of the savants of Paris could not brook the cumbersome and awkward yoke of the German system. They made many bold and chivalrous attempts to penetrate into it; but the parties were reluctantly obliged to give up the enterprise as altogether hopeless and forlorn.

It is, therefore, to the German nation that the system of "Pure Reason" properly and essentially belongs. It is admirably fitted to the turn of mind and genius of the people. It is indigenous to their soil, and can never be successfully or profitably cultivated in any other.

In giving an account of some of the metaphysical writers of Germany, from the time of Kant to the end of the eighteenth century, I am conscious of great imperfections in this enumeration, and in the attempt to furnish the reader with an intel

ligible outline of the views of these respective authors. Their treatises are numerous, and so closely interwoven with the mystical spirit of their master, that it is difficult to penetrate through the murky medium which they have thrown around the "Critique of Pure Reason."

It may also be mentioned here, that some of the philosophical historians of Germany will be treated of in this chapter. These have all, more or less, been men of surprising industry and ability; and their labours have proved of the greatest benefit to the progress of knowledge and science. They are, consequently, justly entitled to our highest respect and veneration.

One remark we must make in reference to these historical works, namely, that they are all, with the exception of Brucker's, in a greater or less degree grounded on the "Critical Philosophy," and imbued with its spirit. Consequently all their representations of systems and opinions are viewed through this medium, and all their original disquisitions have a decided leaning to the Kantian theory. This circumstance makes these historical treatises, to a certain extent, one-sided and partial; and readers, comparatively ignorant of the peculiar features of German speculations, are apt, at first sight, to misinterpret the drift of the historians, and to set too light a value upon their herculean labours.

PAUL MAKO.

This was a Hungarian philosopher. His works

connected with mental science are," Compendiaria Logices Institutio," 1766; and ' Compendiaria Metaphysices Institutio," 1766. His logic is divided into two parts, theoretical and practical; the latter division is the most interesting. The entire work is however, only a compound from Wolff and other German writers and compilers.

The author's "Compendium of Metaphysics embraces all those topics which purely elementary treatises on the Continent usually discussed in the middle of the eighteenth century. We have being, essence, substance, existence, time, space, motion, the faculties of the mind, the immateriality and immortality of the soul, and the elements of natural religion.*

JOHN JAMES BRUCKER.

Brucker is the author of the "Critical History of Philosophy." The work is a stupendous monument of the author's skill and labour. In this publication are comprised all the various branches of philosophy; all the periods of time when they first made their appearance; all the particular countries which gave them birth; all the relations these philosophical systems bear to each other; all the different sects and schools into which they were divided; all their numerous vicissitudes and changes over thousands of years; all the particular doctrines and principles involved in each sect; and, in fact,

See the Author's Works, Edition 1769, Vienna.