CHAPTER X.
IDEALISM.
- Εἰς τὸν ὅλον οὐρανὸν ἀποβλέψας τὸ ἓν εἶναί φησι τὸν θεόν.
- Aristotle, concerning the doctrine of Xenophanes.
Still we are seeking the Eternal. Postulates
about it we must indeed make, or else we shall do
nothing. But can we not go beyond the mere
postulates? Is there no other road open to the heart of
things? In fact many other ways have been
suggested. The religiously interesting efforts towards
a suggestion of such ways have been the special work
of philosophical Idealism in the past. Let us then
see to what results philosophical Idealism offers to
lead us.
I.
“The world of dead facts is an illusion. The truth of it is a spiritual life.” That is what philosophical idealism says. This spiritual life may be defined in many ways. But the multitude of the ways of defining it do not altogether obscure the sense of the doctrine. Plato and St. Augtistine and Berkeley and Fichte and Hegel give us very various accounts of the spiritual life that is to be at the heart of things, but they agree about the general thought. As to the proof of the doctrine, very many
