rejected by him, while others have an undue prominence given to them. Some
of them, such as 'ground' and 'existence,' have hardly any basis either in
language or philosophy, while others, such as 'cause' and 'effect,' are but
slightly considered. All abstractions are supposed by Hegel to derive
their meaning from one another. This is true of some, but not of all, and
in different degrees. There is an explanation of abstractions by the
phenomena which they represent, as well as by their relation to other
abstractions. If the knowledge of all were necessary to the knowledge of
any one of them, the mind would sink under the load of thought. Again, in
every process of reflection we seem to require a standing ground, and in
the attempt to obtain a complete analysis we lose all fixedness. If, for
example, the mind is viewed as the complex of ideas, or the difference
between things and persons denied, such an analysis may be justified from
the point of view of Hegel: but we shall find that in the attempt to
criticize thought we have lost the power of thinking, and, like the
Heracliteans of old, have no words in which our meaning can be expressed.
Such an analysis may be of value as a corrective of popular language or
thought, but should still allow us to retain the fundamental distinctions
of philosophy.

In the Hegelian system ideas supersede persons. The world of thought,
though sometimes described as Spirit or 'Geist,' is really impersonal. The
minds of men are to be regarded as one mind, or more correctly as a
succession of ideas. Any comprehensive view of the world must necessarily
be general, and there may be a use with a view to comprehensiveness in
dropping individuals and their lives and actions. In all things, if we
leave out details, a certain degree of order begins to appear; at any rate
we can make an order which, with a little exaggeration or disproportion in
some of the parts, will cover the whole field of philosophy. But are we
therefore justified in saying that ideas are the causes of the great