egel's peculiar terminology comes ill indeed from
one who talks," _etc._ "This I say not to defend Hegel, for whose
elaborate theory of universals I hold in no wise a brief, but simply
in the cause of literary property-rights. When we plough with another
man's heifer, however unconscious we are of our appropriation, however
sincerely we seem to remember that we alone raised her from her
earliest calfhood, it is yet in vain, after all, that we put our brand
on her, or call her 'American.'... Now Hegel's whole theory may be
false; but what is certain is that Dr. Abbot, who has all his life
been working in an atmosphere where Hegelian ideas were more or less
infectious, has derived his whole theory of universals, so far as he
has yet revealed it with any coherency, from Hegelian sources, and
even now cannot suggest any better terminology than Hegel's for an
important portion of the doctrine. Yet in the volume before us we find
all this pretentious speech of an 'American' theory, and discover our
author wholly unaware that he is sinning against the most obvious
demands of literary property-rights."

Passing over the self-evident point that whoever is "_unaware_ that he
is sinning" cannot be "sinning" at all, since "sinning" consists in
_being aware_ of the wrong we do,--and, consequently, that Dr. Royce
comes here as near as he dares to a direct insinuation that my
plagiarism is conscious, and not "unconscious,"--let me call your
attention to the more important point, that Dr. Royce affirms my
conscious or unconscious theft from Hegel as a matter of _"certain"
fact_, not merely as a matter of _probable inference_. Yet the only
evidence he has to offer in support of this "certainty" is (1) that I
use the word "concrete" in the same sense as Hegel, and (2) that I
have worked all my life in a Hegelian "atmosphere." These two points
cover all the grounds of his accusation. Permit me very briefly to
examine them.

(1) The word "concrete" is not in the least a technical term
copyrighted by Hegel, nor is it his trademark. It is one of the
commonest of words, and free to all. But what sort of a reasoner is he
who infers the identity of two whole complex theories from their
coincidence in the use of only a single word? Even this poor and
solitary little premise slips out of Dr. Royce's clutch, for Hegel's
use of the word is _contradictory to mine_! Hegel has to put upon the
word "concrete" a very unusual, strained, and artificial