Modern Logicians.

No. III.-GEORGE WILLIAM F. HEGEL.

"What, then, constitutes Hegel's glory? It is nothing less than the invention of a new method. The invention of a new method has always been considered the greatest effort of philosophical genius, and the most deserving of the historian's attention."-George Henry Lewes.

"Hegel est plus célèbre qu'il n'est connu."-M. Ch. de Rémusat.

THERE is probably no modern Logician whose name is more frequently quoted, and whose tenets are more generally misapprehended, than Hegel's. The most contemptuous scorn curls upon the lip of the mere tyro in reasoning when his name is pronounced, and no derision is intense enough to express the idea of ridiculousness which common men have learnt to attach to that awful sesquiped, Hegelianism. Yet whole nations are not often stirred to their inmost depths, churches reft, governments moved, lasting disciplehoods formed, systems of thought changed, sciences renovated, arts reformed, and literatures re-born, and all these singular doings and effects are attributed to the philosophy of Hegel-by mere insignificances, which the puff of disdain can extinguish, the youngest syllogizer can confute, or the dogmatic creed-expounder can pooh-pooh! out of being.

We believe it will be useful to give a brief and rapid exposition of the logic of this great thinker,-not because we regard him as the revealer of a system at once new and true, but because we consider it a just and right thing that examination should precede adjudication, and that a well-regulated mind will rejoice to learn what were, in reality, the tenets and teachings of that mighty method-maker, whom men are called upon so often to contemn and condemn. This knowledge has not, as yet, been so readily attainable, as violent and virulent attacks on his name and fame have been and are. An easily-got erudition suffices for the stock-in-trade of an abuser of the reputations of great men. Shrugs, solemnly shaken heads, vituperation, and a little of the lemon-juice of an inferred or asserted result, "make up in number what they want in weight," and secure the character at once of cautious reticence, extensive culture, and personal orthodoxy. But the toil of fully comprehending a great theory, in its principles, methods, and results; the confession of long, studious nights, gainlessly spent, or spent in strenuously striving to understand a wayward and erring spirit; the modesty of believing that our inferences may be false, or our objections futile; and the charity which believes that the mistake may lie in us, rather than the error exist in another, is rarer than the abjuration to beware of pantheistic conceits, of “vain

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philosophy," of theoretic doubts, or of the sceptical insinuations of science, falsely so called." Now, it is well-it is right-to warn the young and the unreflecting to avoid anything that opposes the best interests of humanity. This, however, is not to be done in our age by the cry "Cave!" Our prohibition ought to show its reasonableness by rendering a reason; by proving that the subject has been studied in all its bearings, and that the recoil of thought is justified by a clear perception of the fallacy of that to which objection is made. How seldom is this done by modern sneerers at Hegelianism! A fair, honest investigation of every thought and principle which stirs the souls of men is the bounden duty of those who would truly guide public opinion. And this is the very difficulty, how to investigate truly, and explain in reality, such a system of thought as that of Hegel's. His style is, in itself, harsh, dry, obscure, and intricate, laboriously cumbered with a crabbed and repulsive terminology; in fact, like his own speech-somewhat hesitant and slow. But the thought expressed by it is searching, far-reaching, profound, startling sometimes, puzzling often, but so acute, bold, novel, greatly-daring and suggestive, that it requires to be read—studied, not skimmed. No mere vocabularian translation of Hegel's works will give any idea of their exceeding wealth of thought. In fact, no philosophy will bear such a test; for the language of philosophy is verbally untranslateable, and the newer the philosophy is, the less is it capable of yielding its treasures to word-for-word versionists. To translate Hegel, or indeed any philosopher, aright, we must read his thoughts into us, and make them ours, and then express them in the current philosophical language of our day and age.* Few of Hegel's exposers and expositors have attempted to do this, and hence we think their grave error, and the inefficiency of their procedure. We intend to attempt a concise abridgment of the logical tenets of Hegel on this plan, with the intent-not of propagating Hegelianism-but of enabling our readers to attach a definite signification to the word, and to take away the absolute nihilism which it now represents. Before and while doing this, however, we shall attempt to lay together, in brief compass, the chief facts of his uneventful, scholarly career, and to note his relation to his age and his philosophy. We are, we confess, afraid that in doing so we shall be found veritably dull; and that is the one unpardonable sin in periodical writing. Yet, should we be so, let it be understood that it is not for the sake of making easy writing for ourselves we choose this topic; for we could compose many articles of more popular texture with less effort of thought than this has cost us merely to conceive and arrange. We undertake it, because we think our doing so will be useful to

* Une critique claire et convaincante des systèmes n'est possible qu'à la condition de les traduire tous dans la langue générale de la philosophie, qui permit de leur appliquer une commune mésure."-Rémusat's "De la Philosophie Allemande," p. 63.

those who hear of and wish to know something about the Hegelian Logic. It occupies a conspicuous place in speculative thought; it is actively operative in German life; it is much studied, and powerfully active, in Oxford; it is insinuating itself vitally into all our highest literature; it speaks to us from pulpits, writes itself in our works on Christian evidences, and receives utterances in our legislative halls. Though it is often decried, its principles are frequently expressed by those parties who most strongly anathematize it.

George William Frederick Hegel, eldest son of George Lewis Hegel, was born at Stuttgart, the capital of Würtemberg (of the Ducal Chamber of which his father was the Secretary), August 27th, 1770. His early boyhood was not remarkable, but his school life proved him to be a boy of promise. Stuttgart possesses a famous Gymnasium, i. e., high or grammar school, and through the curriculum of that institution, in preparation for a University course, he passed with considerable distinction. When eight years of age, he gained, as a prize, Wieland's translation of Shakspere,-a pretty, polished, classicalized transfusion of the great dramatist, for the first time, into the language of Luther. This school reward seems to have given him a love for that species of literature; for he devoted a large proportion of his youth to the study of the grand master-pieces of Greek tragedy. It also directed his mind to our island's literature, and inclined him, so early as in his fifteenth year, to study Locke, Hume, &c. At this time, too, he employed himself in collecting a set of definitions of philosophical terms. He was, early in life, a careful reader, and was always in the habit of making copious extracts from the works he perused, into commonplace books, of which he had a large number.

In his seventeenth year, with a mind well stored with classical knowledge, a fair acquaintance, for his years, with history, literature, and science, he left the Gymnasium for the University. He was destined for the ministry, and to qualify him for that sacred office, he was sent to Tübingen, to study literature, philosophy, and theology. His philosophical instructor was J. F. Flatt, an early, acute, and liberal-minded opponent of the theories of Kant; G. C. Storr, also a critic of the opinions of the sage of Koenigsberg in their relation to religion, taught Hegel exegetics; and C. F. Schnurrer, the Orientalist, a man of great and accurate learning,―lectured him on the philology of the languages of Greece and the East. Among Hegel's friends in the theological stift, or seminary, the discipline of which was strict and monastical, were F. Hölderlein, poet and novelist, whose nature was entirely suffused with Greek sympathy, and who commenced, while a student in Tübingen, his romance of "Hyperion; or, the Hermit in Greece;" Fink Renz, Schelling, &c. These young men read together Plato, Spinoza, Kant, Rousseau, &c. Hegel and his confrerès, under the influence of the first French Revolution, formed a political club, and were enthusiastic admirers of Gallic liberalism. Fatherland and Freedom" were the chief words of Hegel's patriotism, which he carried so far as to go out

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one Sunday with his club-mates to plant in a neighbouring meadow a "tree of liberty." Hegel's father, as the superintendent of the Ducal finances should be, was aristocratic in his tendencies, and strongly condemned his son's hero-worship of Rousseau, and his Gallicized democratic leanings; indeed sometimes Hegel's revolu tionary enthusiasm led him to quarrel with his father. In his youth, Hegel was inclined to convivialism, company, and comradeship, and sometimes took a night-race into the outlying suburbs of Tübingen, without permission, to enjoy himself in hilarities not quite recognized by the University authorities. For such an escapade he was once subjected to an academical censure, and thereupon he resolved to reform, and applied himself with superearnest application to his defined class duties, for weeks satisfying the demands of nature for sleep, by a brief nap on a sofa, and stimulating his over-fagged brain with snuff, to which he became inveterately addicted. He gained the degree of Master of Arts in 1790. The subject chosen by this inchoate M.A. was, The limit of human duty, the immortality of the soul being left out of the question." Hegel's training for practical clerical duty went on for some time longer, and in the session 1791-2, he had in his turn as a student to preach. He chose for his text, Isaiah vi. 7, 8. Among his fellow-students, though he was loved, he was not distinguished. His voice was harsh, his delivery uncouth, and his gesticulation overdone. He was nicknamed " Öld Man."

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In 1793, he gained the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and quitted the University. Being under the necessity of supporting himself, he became a private tutor in Berne, the capital of Switzerland. He employed his leisure at this time in studying the political works of Grotius, and Paulus, author of a work "On the Stadtholderate," &c.; the philosophy of Spinoza, Kant, and Fichte; in the perusal of Marivaux's masterly romances, Forster's Travels, as the companion of Captain Cook. The English and French journals also occupied much of his time. His interest in the history of the Jews, -always a subject of much thought to him-arose about this time. During the leisure of 1795, he compiled a "Life of Christ." He had at Tübingen often compared the martyr of Greek philosophy, Socrates, with the martyr for humanity, Christ; but in this work, though totally sceptical regarding the miracles of Jesus, he speaks of Him as a man truly Divine, pure, exalted, triumphing over vice, falsehood, sin; as a man who is God-God who is man.' An abstract of his mature views on this topic may be read in his "Lectures on the Philosophy of History," part iii., sec. iii., chap. 2,* and it need not, therefore, detain us here now.

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In January, 1797, he became tutor in the house of Herr Gogel, a merchant in Frankfort-on-the-Maine. By this change he was made easier in his circumstances, introduced to the activities of commercial life, and brought into intimate connection with many of the

*See Sibree's translation of these "Lectures" (Bohn), pp. 330-340.