objective element, as that whose existence was the same as its non-existence, and the subjective process

The absolute idea.

Use of

Kant's antinomies.

which remained he called the Absolute Idea. The nature of this idea. he undertook to expound, or to show how it unfolds itself, from a primary being which is non-being, to an ultimate being which is also non-being. This part of his system is the Hegelian logic. Kant had discovered, in connection with his categories, certain contradictions which he named antinomies; that is, it was possible, from different data, to prove direct opposites in regard to the same thing. But he applied this law of contradictories only in the sphere of natural philosophy. Hegel, seizing hold of this Kantian principle, claimed that it was universally applicable, and made it the comprehensive law of his logic. These antagonisms were only for the understanding, however; the reason beholds steadily that higher unity into which they are constantly rising. His whole system of logic is therefore a triplicate process. The logical As described by Professor H. B. Smith, "There is first a statement expressed in the positive form; then there follows the negation of the position; and then the two contradictory statements are resolved into a higher unity. And so the system proceeds, from stage to stage, positive, negative, and the union between the positive and negative. This union becomes in turn a positive, a negative is set over against it, and this new contradiction is resolved into another and higher unity." 1

movement.

But the Hegelian dialectics are not simply logic, in the usual abstract sense of the word. A vital movement is

1 Bibliotheca Sacra, Vol. II. p. 274.

everywhere intended.

The recognition of the absolute

idea, under its threefold aspect, constitutes in nature Natural philosophy. Here we are conscious of a "becoming," answering to Spinoza's infinite at- philosophy. tribute of extension. This nature-movement,

Natural

throughout all its stages, conforms to the fixed logical arrangement. It illustrates, like everything else, the presence of the Hegelian trinity. Not only natural philosophy as a whole, but its divisions, — mechanics, physics, and organized bodies; and not only these, but their subdivisions and sub-subdivisions, down to the minutest representatives of the action of nature, conform to a single law. They exist only by a constant struggle of affirmations and negations, through which the reason beholds. them rising all the while into a fuller development and perfect unity.

Philosophy

of spirit.

Not only in nature, but in mind or spirit also, the Hegelian trinity is everywhere present. Mind, considered absolutely, was to Hegel an infinite process, not differing. from nature in the final analysis, and corresponding to Spinoza's infinite attribute of thought, so far as an empty process may be said to correspond to a substance. The true philosophy of mind or spirit is the exposition of the threefold movement in consciousness, by which it is unfolded. Our thoughtactivity affirms itself by a positive movement answering to Schelling's potence of reflection, and also denies that positive by the potence of sub-sumption; while the reason has, in the mean time, held the two contradictories together in perfect union, under the higher idea of the absolute spirit. The propriety of the distinction between

nature and mind is a little hard to see, looking from the point of Hegel's subjective idealism; though it enables the logician to reach certain facts of history which otherwise might seem to escape him. The absolute spirit, Hegel says, "is the absolute idea known and understood. The three stages of its development are art, religion, philosophy. Philosophy, in the system of Hegel, is the highest state to which the consciousness of man can be brought. It is not merely the union of art and religion, but it is this union elevated into the state of self-conscious thought."1

cal result.

Religion, therefore, is simply one of the factors Its theologi- of a true philosophy; one of the potences of an absolute thought-process, which started from nothing and proceeds to nothing. All the knowledge of existence to which we can ever attain is this triplicate movement of the Hegelian dialectic. Being, which is the same thing as non-being, lies behind us and before us. From it we came, and to it we hasten, by a process of constant "becoming," the law of which is the universal logic, and which constitutes all that we distinguish as God, man, and nature. God, for instance, is first thought into being; but this thought is completed only in the contradictory thought of non-being, the two opposites so uniting as to give rise to the pure idea of a "becoming." This is the only existence in the case, and it is the product of the dialectic movement; therefore, exclaims the audacious logician, "I have created God."

The following is related as occurring between Kant and Hegel. In an argument one day, Hegel had been contending that what we call the outward reality is never

1 Bibliotheca Sacra, Vol. II. p. 285.

Kant.

anything but the idea which we have of it. The thinking process posites the object. Kant Hegel and could not accept this, for he believed in a real external world; and he replied to Hegel, with great shrewdness, "There is considerable difference between having a hundred dollars and thinking you have them." But the absolute idealist was not at all confused. Drawing himself up with proud disdain, he met his opponent on common ground, and effectually silenced him, saying, "Your poor empirical dollars are things with which philosophy does not concern itself.” 1 No argument, or ridicule, could move him from his conclusion, that the only real existence is a self-moved process out of nothing into nothing.

Consequences of the system.

Polythe

Plainly, then, no written revelation, or positive system of worship; no political, social, or domestic institution, can hold its own a moment in the sweep of this all-consuming philosophy. ism, monotheism, Christianity, the instant they touch it, melt like wax in the furnace. Strauss brings the story of Jesus of Nazareth within its reach, and straightway that beautiful life and sacrifice are licked up by its tongue of fire. Schleiermacher exposes to it the doctrines of theology built up by cher. Schleiermamighty minds through the slow ages, and in

Strauss.

stantly, like the servants of Nebuchadnezzar, they are slain. It would be pleasant to feel sure that the trans

1 The following passage (Logic, Chap I., C.) would go far to sustain this anecdote: "Being and non-being are the same thing; also it is the same thing ⚫ whether I am or am not, whether this house is or is not, whether these hundred dollars are in my possession or are not."

lator of Plato, and the great Berlin preacher who had such power to lift the minds of men up into heavenly realms of truth, escaped from the abyss of pantheism into which he early fell. But Julius Müller concedes as much, probably, as the strict truth will bear, when he says, "The truly Christian view of sin and redemption, which Schleiermacher adopts in his superstructure, is in direct contrast with the foundation of his theory. Firmly agreeing with Schleiermacher as to the superstructure, we are obliged to reject the theoretic foundation of his doctrine."1

Net result.

While thinking of the system of Spinoza as perfected by Hegel, and of the way in which all divine and human institutions, and the realities of the external world, vanish in its embrace, it seems to us like a mighty ocean, heated by the rays of a vertical sun; into which the Bible, the Church, the State, history, nature, society, as if they were but so many tall and resplendent frost-vessels, are forever moving down to melt out of sight, and to blend with its weary, aimless, ever rolling, and unfathomable waters.

Lesson of the survey now taken.

The lesson of this brief and fragmentary survey of Neo-Spinozism is plain. In the midst of the garden in which the Lord God has placed

1 The following is Schleiermacher's eulogy of Spinoza, the first sentence of which I have already quoted: "Offer up reverently with me a lock of hair to the manes of the rejected but holy Spinoza. The great Spirit of the universe filled his soul; the infinite to him was beginning and end; the universal his sole and only love. Dwelling in holy innocence and deep humility among men, he saw himself mirrored in the eternal world, and the eternal world not all unworthily reflected back in him. Full of religion was he, full of the Holy Ghost; and therefore it is that he meets us standing alone in his age, raised above the profane multitude, master in his art, but without disciples and the citizen's rights."