The Wisdom and Ilel4ione a' German Philosopher : being Selec-
tions from the Writings of G. W. F. Hegel.: Collected and edited by Elizabeth E Haldane. Megan Paul, Trench, and Co.)—On the frontispiece of this little volume is a portrait of the great German thinker, whose -calm, powerful face, with the far-away eyes, compel your admiraticin, as does his colossal structure of thought, even though you may 'agree neither with its method nor conclusion's, and even ,if you suspect ,that you do not grasp the fall meaning.. uff,or,a philosophy has been used both as a support for atheisin and for orthodoxy. There is no doubt that he was personally a devout man, however w e may look 03 his thinking. His miLd was. eminently religious, not indeedi in the pietistic cad cmotioral iense, but in' the senie ors
of reason. What penetration and power there are in these two passages, one from " The Philosophy of Religion," the other from " The Philosophy of History " :---" The man who it `Yeowvetted ' gives up his one-sidedness ; he has extirpated it himself in his will, which was the permanent seat of the deed, the place of its abode ; that is, he destroys the act in its root." " Christ—man as man—in whom the unity of God and man has appeared, has in his death and his history generally, himself presented the eternal history of Spirit—a history which every man has to accomplish in himself in order to exist as Spirit, or to become a child of God, a citizen of His Kingdom." Equally striking is the wit of Hegel, the wise aphorisms, which, as the translator says, he utters on all the real and vital subjects of daily life. Here is a fine thought finely expressed from the "Logic" :—" Childlike innocence, no doubt, has in it something fascinating and attractive, but only because it reminds us of what the spirit must win for itself." This too is wisdom :—" The individual is the offspring of his people, of his world, whose constitution and attributes are alone manifested in his form ; he may spread himself out as he will, he cannot escape out of his time any more than out of his skin." There are few subjects of importance on which liege! has not uttered some illuminating word, and this little volume, admirably translated, should be in the bands of all earnest people who ask for light on the path.
Previous page
