ilosophers
of that last name in England also," said he.

"Why, what have I said?" replied the other, looking surprised and vexed.

"Nothing at all," said Harrington, still laughing. "Nothing that I
know of; I am sure I may with truth affirm it. But I beg your pardon
for laughing; only I could not help it, at finding you like so many
other young philosophers born of German theology and philosophy,
attempting to frighten me by a mere roll-call of formidable names.
Why, my friend, it is because these things have, as you say, divided
these great minds so hopelessly, that I am in difficulty; if the
philosophers had agreed about them, it would have been another
story. One would think, to hear them invoked by many a youth here,
that these powerful minds had convinced one another; instead of that,
they have simply confounded one another. It was the very spectacle
of their interminable disputes and distractions in philosophy and
theology,--ever darker and darker, deeper and deeper, as system after
system chased each other away, like the clouds they resemble through
a winter sky;--I say it was the very spectacle of their distractions
which first made me a sceptic; and I think I am hardly likely to be
reconvinced by the mere sound of their names, ushered in by vague
professions of profound admiration of their profundity! The praise
is often oddly justified by citing something or other, which,
obscure enough in the original, is absolute darkness when translated
into English; and must, like some versions I have seen of the
classics, be examined in the original, in order to gain a glimpse of
its meaning."

The student acknowledged that there was certainly much vague
admiration and pretension amongst young Englishmen in this matter; but
thought that profounder views were to be gathered from these sources
than was generally acknowledged.

"Very well," replied Harrington; "I do not deny it, perhaps it is so;
and whenever you choose to justify that opinion by expressing in
intelligible English the special views of the special author you
think thus worthy of attention, whether he be from Germany or Timbuctoo,
I humbly venture to say that I will (so far from laughing) examine them
with as much patience as yourself. But if you wish to cure me of
laughing, I beseech you to refrain from all vague appeals to
wholesale authority.

"The most ludicrous circumstance, however," he continued, "connected
with this German mania is, that in many