for starting the reaction against the immobility of the old regime in philosophy, just as Darwin started it, a little later, in biology.
But Hegelianism is not to be wholly accounted for by the satisfaction which it gives to such sentiments. Its success has been due to other causes as well, and in particular to moral causes. It satisfies the need which men have always felt for the creation of a world sui generis, located beyond and above the world of sense and of science, exempt by its very nature from the attacks of criticism and the denials of experience, a world wherein one may give free play to beliefs and sentiments of every sort. These metaphysical worlds of the philosophers have in the city of thought the same function that cathedrals had in the Middle Ages: they enjoy the right of asylum. For when a man who has sinned in the presence of science or experience takes refuge in such a world, its prelates cover him with the mantle of philosophy, and save not only his life, but his reputation.
III
In speaking thus of the philosophic concept—the Isis, the Phœnix, and the Veiled Prophet of Hegelianism—I have by implication criticized the Hegelian dialectic as well, since this dialectic feeds only on these particular concepts. But the
