The Concord School of Philosophy [pp. 49-71]

THE CONCORD SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY.
where I found the observation of the forms of nature, especially
of the mountain plants, to be far more pleasant, and I thought
profitable, than the study of the artificial forms of Hegel's dialectic. In the end I came to the conclusion that I had gone
far enough into the labyrinth, and that as life is so brief and
uncertain, and as I had so much other study to carry on and
work to do, it might be as well to stop.
Since that I have once or twice ventured to criticise Hegel,
but was told very emphatically by those who appeared to understand him that I did not understand him, and I was not quite
sure whether they might not be right. I have watched with
deep interest the history of the system, and conversed with
several eminent Hegelians both of the right and left for hours
at a time, and found no two of them agreeing with each other.
I have observed that when any man opposes the system, he is
told that he does not understand it. I was amused at, and
rather gratified with, the story told that Hegel had said, "Only
one man understands me, and he does not understand me." I
was not amazed, nor was I sorrowful, to hear that the believers
in Hegel were every year becoming fewer and fewer, tho
metaphysicians still continued to study him and admire his dialectical skill. I confess, however, that I was taken by surprise
when the pessimists, who follow much the same method but
reach far different results, described one so famous as a charlatan. Finding that in the histories of philosophy he had a great
name in the statement and interpretation of opinions, I betook
myself to him at times when I was studying some of the ancient systems, such as that of Aristotle; but I found that he
put them all under his own forms in short, Hegelized them.'
Of Christianity he always wrote in the way of compliment, but
it is when he has made it speak as he speaks.
It is not easy to criticise Hegelianism, for this among other
reasons, that it contains so much, all things divine and human,
1 Many of the German histories of philosophy and those who copy them in
England and America fall into a like fault. Thus they represent the Greek philosophers as seeking after the absolute, which is a German thought. What the
Greeks were seeking after was r6 oy, the reality, the real thing; not the Ding
an sich, which is an absurdity, as there can be no such thing as a thing in itself;
but the thing itself, the very thing.
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