Revue Encyclopedique. Par M. V. Cousin [pp. 358-377]

German and French Philosophy.
account, we shall now give particular attention to the work of
M. Daumer; for he also seriously thinks, that a new religion
is the result to which all the modern philosophy of Germany tends, and must finally come. From the title of his
book wve did not suspect this religious tendency, but it is
clearly stated. The author commences thus:
" This system recognises God as a spirit, which determines
itself in itself and by itself as personality, and has freely conceived in itself the idea of the world and plan of its realization.'
Knowing that M. Daulmer is a partizan of the modern philosophy, which is called Pantheism by its adversaries, I supposed he would attempt to fill a great blank in this philosophy, one that the system of Krauze seemed only to enlarge to
its greatest extent. It is known that Schelling, the renovator
of the philosophy called Pantheism, placed, as did Spinosa,
for the foundation of the science, the absolute existence
(l'dtre absolu), from which every thing must be derived.
He attributed to this being several properties, but his expressions were neither simple axioms nor legitimate deductions of
reason. Besides, his object, in seeking for these highest attributes of God, or the absolute existence, seemed only that
he might reach nature, and a new construction of nature,
made according to the highest attributes of God, who was, in
his estimation, the constituent principle of all existence. The
highest part of philosophy, that in which the complex attributes of God ought to be explained, such as the divine personality, the absolute self-intelligence (la conscience absolue),
the sentiment of infinite (le sentiment infini), as well as love,
wisdom, justice, &c. this part of philosophy in the work of
Schelling was a blank, a desideratum. We might even demand if his system could reach these questions, if it possessed the necessary scientific instrument, the principal ideas,
(the categories, as Aristotle calls them). This part, together
with the spiritual world, was neglected for the natural world.
Nature, so long viewed with the eyes of materialism and atomism, as abandoned of God, of soul, of life, was to be re-established. It was, in a glorious manner. The grand movement, necessary to produce so many men distinguished by
their knowledge of nature, as Oken, Steffens, &c. &c. took
place. By a necessary re-action, it happened that this philosophy, thus incomplete, and giving no satisfaction to the sentiments of the heart, especially to the religious feelings, called
forth men to protest against it, accusing it of atheism and ir
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