Page:Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1889) Vol 2.djvu/121

LECTURE VII.

EARLIER CONDITIONS OF THE SCIENTIFIC OR LITERARY WORLD, AND ITS IDEAL CONDITION.

There are two objections which may be anticipated to such descriptions as have been presented to you in my last lecture, and which require consideration:—First, that everything we have adduced may indeed exist in Human Nature generally, but not in the constitution of any particular Age; and hence may chance to be found in all Times: Second, that the whole view is one-sided;—that we have only adduced whatever is defective in the Age, and set it in an unfavourable light, but have passed over in silence the good which is nevertheless to be found in it. The former objection may be best met by recalling to mind Ages in which it has been otherwise than we have described, and showing historically how, and by what causes, the present state of things has arisen. The latter objection cannot affect us, if we only keep in mind the nature and purpose of our present undertaking. We have asserted nothing whatever upon the ground of experience, but on the contrary, have deduced the different elements of our description from principle alone. If our deduction has been correct and rigid, we have no occasion to inquire whether these things are so in present reality or not. Are they not so?—then we do not live in the Third Age. The sufficient