Leo XIII. and the Philosophy of St. Thomas [pp. 367-376]

I 887.] LEO XIII. ANDV THE PHILOSOPHY OF ST. THOMAS. 37'I
not only on German but also -on European and American
thought generally was so great that Dr. John Elmendorft says
it was "second only. if second, to Aristotle."
Johann Gottlieb Fichte, i762-I814, was an enthusiastic fol lower of Kant, giving'subjective idealism " still further devel
opment. His first philosophical principle was the Ego (I) given
by consciousness with absolute certainty. In his Bestinmungdes
Mensclhen he declared:: "Thou art thyself essential being. All
that thou seest without thee is ever thyself; in all consciousness
thou beholdest thyself. Consciousness is an active introspection
(kzinsciauteit) of what thou gazest at (anschauest); it is anl outlook
(hIzerauschzauen) of thyself upon thyself." It was with twaddle of
this kind that Fichte, and other Teutonic philosophers also, en deavored to enlighten "the nation of thinkers."
No wonder that sensible people could not help smiling at
such nonsense. What intelligent Germans, about the beginning
of the present century, thought of philosophy and philosophlers
we sufficiently learn from Goethe and Schiller. The former ridi cules philosophy in his AFaest, and even compares "a speculative
fellow" to a beast led about by an evil spirit in a desert place,
whilst all about is green, inviting pasture. The following are
the famous words:
"Ein Kerl, der speculirt,
Ist wie ein Thier auf duerrer Haide,
Von einem boesen Geist in Kreis herumgefuehrt,
Und rings umher liegt schoene, gruene Weide."..
Schiller, in his poem "Die Philo(sophen," seems to consider
Hades the proper place for philosophers to continue their disputes in. These satirical remarks of the great German poets
show with what scorn intelligent men about the beginning of
this century. looked down upon non-Catholic philosophy and
philosophers. Since then philosophical speculation has added
many a new system or theory to its already superabundant mass
of intellectual follies.
II.
Were philosophical speculation but a harmless pastime of
:idle book-worms, one might simply smile at the absurd vagaries
of those "advanced thinkers" who imagine they are progressing
* See Charles F. Richardson, American Literature, 10o7-1885, pp. 3i6-2,1
t Outlines of Lectures on the History of Phzlosophy, New York, 1876, p. a.4qI.
$ See Dr. John Elmendorf, 1. c. p. 253. i:.