t will be acknowledged
at once by every consistent Idealist, who understands his own
philosophy, and who is honest or bold enough to carry it out into all
its practical applications. He knows very well, and, if sufficiently
candid, he will frankly confess, that the principles on which he founds,
if they be conclusive against the existence of a living, personal God,
are equally conclusive against the reality of an external world, and
against the doctrine of our own personality or that of our fellow-men.
With most minds, this consideration would be of itself a powerful
counteractive to all that is most dangerous in the theory of Idealism,
were it only clearly apprehended and steadily kept in view; for an
argument which proves too much is justly held to prove nothing, and that
theory which leaves us no right to believe in the existence of Nature,
or in the distinct personality of our fellow-men, can scarcely be held
sufficient to disprove the existence of God.

It may be observed, further, that Ideal Pantheism has a strong tendency
to engender a spirit either of Mysticism, on the one hand, or of
Skepticism on the other. It terminates in Mysticism when, seeking to
avoid Skepticism, it takes refuge in the doctrine of an "intellectual
intuition," such as gives an immediate knowledge of the Absolute: and it
terminates in Skepticism when, seeking to avoid Mysticism, it rejects
the doctrine of "intellectual intuition," and discovers that it has no
other and no higher claims to our confidence than such as are equally
possessed by any one of our common faculties, whose testimony the
Idealist has been taught to distrust and doubt.

It is further worthy of remark, that the philosophy of the Absolute, as
taught in the German schools, has been applied to the whole circle of
the Sciences, not less than to Theology, and that it has given birth to
numerous speculative systems, in Physics, in Chemistry, in Ethics, in
History, and in Politics, all strongly marked by the same characteristic
feature--the substitution of _a priori and deductive_ speculation for
the more sober and legitimate method of Inductive inquiry. The province
of Natural Science, in which, if anywhere, we should be guided by the
light of experience and observation, has been rudely invaded by this
transcendental philosophy, which offers to construct a theory of
universal knowledge on the basis of a certain self-development of the
Absolute. We are indebted to Mr. Morell f