The popular works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte

III. Outlines Of The Doctrine Of Knowledge, . . 507

Tins second and concluding volume of FICIITE'S Popular Works contains, as was formerly promised, " The Characteristics of the Present Age" and " The Way towards the Blessed Life, or the Doctrine of Religion." To these the Translator has considered it desirable to add a short treatise entitled " Outlines of the Doctrine of Knowledge," which, although not strictly belonging to the popular writings of the Author, and indeed demanding thoughtful and earnest study for its full comprehension, may yet, under that con dition, be serviceable to the general reader as presenting a very condensed but still clear abstract of the celebrated " Wissenschaftslehre" and as thus affording him a sort of chart by the aid of which he may be enabled to determine for himself the relative position which any of the particular views illustrated in the Popular Works holds in the general scheme of the Fichtean Philosophy. The Translator hopes that he has thereby rendered his whole undertaking more complete in a literary point of view, and more acceptable to the student of Philosophy.

The Portrait of FICHTE which is prefixed to this volume is engraved from a painting by the celebrated DAIILING, taken at the age of forty-six, or about six years before the death of the philosopher.

W. SMITH.

EDINBURGH, April 1849.

THE

CHARACTERISTICS

OF

THE PRESENT AGE

JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE.

THE present volume is published in partial fulfilment of a pledge given by the Translator, on another occasion, to place within the reach of the British Publicsome of the later and more popular works of the great German Transcendentalist. The Lectures of which it is composed were delivered in Berlin during the winter of 1804-5,, to an audience comprising many of the most dis tinguished men who surrounded the throne of FREDERICK- WILLIAM at that eventful period, and to whose patrioticexertions Prussia is indebted for political independence, a,s well as for that system of Popular Education which is her proudest distinction among the Nations of Europe. The topics to which FICHTE directed the attention of his au ditory embrace everything which belongs to the History of the Progress of the Human Race ; and the principles which are brought to bear upon the elucidation of this vast pro blem are the same which he has elsewhere applied to the individual relations of Man, and which form the grand and distinguishing peculiarities of his Philosophy.

In forming the resolution to bring some of FICHTE'S later writings within the reach of English readers, by as-

« 2

VI

suming the humble office of Translator, the present writer was actuated by two motives : The one, — the desire that the opinions of a great and genuine Thinker upon the greatest subjects of Thought, should be truly understood and appreciated among us; the other, — the conviction that the intrinsic excellence of these writings was such as to render them an acquisition of no mean importance to any Literature, however rich in native treasures.

That FICHTE'S doctrines, and indeed the doctrines of Transcendentalism generally, should have hitherto been but little known, or rather not known at all, to the people of this country, is by no means surprising. Almost the only inti mations which formerly reached us of Transcendentalism and its Teachers were either vague and obscure hints, scattered here and there throughout the writings of the few of our own learned men who devoted themselves to Pure Specula tion, or else the perverted statements of mere ignorance; while even among those of whom, in an especial manner, it might have been expected that their knowledge of German Literature, and their acquaintance with this particular de partment of Thought, would have preserved them from error, we still find instances of the most glaring misconception. In this respect FICHTE has been peculiarly unfortunate. His writings have been but partially studied, even by our best Thinkers ; the text-books of his students'have been mistaken for the completed institute of his Philosophy, and the initiatory steps of the pupil accepted as the matured results of the master. The consequence has been that his Philo sophy has been grossly misunderstood by those who alone had the means and opportunity of examining it directly,

Vll

and the errors of the learned have been of course communi cated to those whose only knowledge of the subject rested on their testimony.

One of the most notable instances of this learned ignorance occurs in the Biographia Literaria of the late Samuel Taylor Coleridge, an author from whom a more just and discriminating estimate of FICHTE'S Transcendentalism might not unreasonably have been expected. Speaking of our author, Mr. Coleridge says — " His theory degenerated into a crude egoismus, a boastful and hyperstoic hostility to Nature, as lifeless, godless, and altogether unholy: while his religion consisted in the assumption of a mere ordo ordinans, which we were permitted exoterice to call GOD; and his ethics in an ascetic, and almost monkish, mortifi cation of natural passions and desires." Such is the testi mony borne by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to the character of FICHTE'S Philosophy, and sent forth to the English Public as the sole result of his inquiries into that matter. It is not too much to affirm that no statement so entirely unfounded, so utterly devoid of truth and justice, could readily be found even among the fallacies of that brilliant but delusive writer. FICHTE'S theory could only be termed a crude ' egoismus' by one who was ill acquainted with his works ; for whatever excuse might have been afforded for such a misconception by the subjective terminology in which the theory naturally clothed itself in its earlier stages, while the point of view was still that of the individual understanding, yet in no form of its mature development, nor in any of its ultimate applications, does the author fail to set forth and establish, with unequalled clearness and

Vlll

most convincing power of thought, the unchangeable rela tions which subsist, and must always continue to subsist, between the Individual Mind and the Supreme and Universal Intelligence. If proof of this were needed, it might be found in overflowing abundance in every page of the present volume, one great purpose of which is to exhibit the abso lute nothingness of the Individual Life, when separated from, or opposed to, the All-embracing Source of Life. In such a theory, it is impossible that Nature can be re garded as "lifeless, godless, and altogether unholy," — for in it Nature, for the first time, becomes interpenetrated with Intelligence, and, from being a mere dead mass of material forces, is elevated into a Living and Sacred manifestation of the One Eternal Divine Life. Again, with reference to the assertion that FICHTE'S Religion " consisted in the assump tion of a mere ordo ordinans, which we were permitted exoterice to call God," — the charge may be either denied or admitted according to the meaning we attach to the phraseology employed. To the vast majority of English readers, Mr. Coleridge's assertion will convey this meaning : — that, in FICHTE'S theory, the Divinity is degraded into a mere Established Order, or Law, according to the commonly received acceptation of these terms among us ; and in this sense the assertion is wholly untrue. Those who declaim so loudly, in our own day, against Pantheism and its fearful train of evils, would do well to consider whether there be not a broad distinction between the Material Pantheism which degrades the Divinity into a mere Plastic Force, and the Spiritual Pantheism (if we may be allowed the expres sion) which ennobles Man and Nature by drawing them into more intimate union with the Supreme and Living Intelli-

IX

gence. The one rules in desolate supremacy in the arid desert of Utilitarianism ; the other has been the Religion of all Earnest Thinkers and Poets since the world began: — let us add, it is the Religion of Christianity. In this higher signification, it may indeed be freely admitted that FICIITE regarded the Divinity as the ordo ordinans of the Universe ; but that Universe was to him one of free and voluntary activity; hence its Principle is necessarily possessed of Free dom and Intelligence, or rather is Absolute Freedom and Intelligence; — and if he abstained from clothing the Divine Nature with the sensuous imagery and personal nomencla ture which belong to the finite understanding, and rather reverently fell back on the Inconceivable and Unnameable 'I AM' of Ancient Religion, it was for a reason the very reverse of what is here attributed to him. In the third place, if his Ethics had been " monkish" or " ascetic," we might have expected to see them manifested in a life of estrangement and isolation from his fellow-men, heedless of their errors and untouched by their miseries, without sympathy in their struggles or effort for their improvement. The answer to this charge, FICHTE has recorded in deeds, not in words.

It is much to be regretted that such misrepresentations as these should have hindered the reception among us of a writer so full of genuine nobleness and dignity as he of whom we now speak. If the labours of the Translator shall contribute in some degree to remove these hindrances, he will be amply rewarded.

But apart from any considerations connected with the author personally, these writings possess an independent value which alone would be sufficient to entitle them to a favourable reception on the part of the English reader. They abound in searching and vigorous thought on the highest topics of human speculation. The present volume contains the only attempt, with which the Translator is acquainted, to apply the principles of the Transcendental Philosophy to the elucidation of the vast domain of History. That such an application is possible, — or in other words, that there is a Plan in the Divine Government of the World, and that this Plan is recognisable by the human mind, — is a principle which cannot be doubted by any one who has in reality cast off the vain theories of mere Chance and Necessity, and has truly accepted the belief in an Intelli gent Principle of the Universe. But although the existence of such a Plan must be acknowledged by every serious Thinker, and even lies at the root of all Earnestness and all lleligion, it requires a mind of no ordinary stamp to rise to the conception of this Plan, and to trace its progress throughout the mysterious course of events. This FICIITE has attempted to do, — with what success, it must be left to the judgment of the reader to determine for himself. The Student of History will gladly avail himself of the light which Divine Philosophy can shed upon the dim and often trackless path of his in quiry ; and the Philosopher will joyfully emerge, for a while, from the retirement of formula, to gaze with delight upon the living current of History, irradiated by the same Light which has guided his secret studies, and has been to him a pillar of fire amid the desert of narrow opinions and gro velling theories. And every genuine Thinker will receive with an earnest welcome these words of one who, amid

XI no ordinary difficulties and discouragements, ranked second to none in his unswerving devotion to Truth, and his noble championship of Philosophy.

It is the purpose of the writer to follow up this publica tion, at a future period, by a translation of the " 2ln»cifumj $um ®cliv}en Sebcn, ofcer aud) tie SMigtonSlefyre " (the Doctrine of Religion.) This work forms the completion of a course of popular writings, of which the " Nature of the Scholar" (already published) and the present volume constitute other portions, and, as containing the highest development of FICHTE'S Philosophy, will form an appropriate close to this series of translations from his more popular works.

EDINBURGH, September 1847.

ERRATA.

Page 8, line 6 from bottom, deU "a"

„ 20, „ 10 „ „ for " comhension " read " comprehension."

„ 34, head-line, for " Lecture II." read " Lecture III." „ 105, line 2 from bottom, for " cultivated " read "constituted." „ 192, „ 7 „ „ for "treasures" read "treasuries."

Contents

AUTHOR'S PREFACE, Pa9e xv

LKCTURE I. IDEA OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY, ... 1

II. GENERAL DELINEATION OF THE THIRD AGE, 14