enough for us to render the darkness visible, that is to say, to
understand well what it is which the doctrine of the Berlin Professor,
in a certain sense, renders incomprehensible.

The foundation of his theory is that the universe is explained by an
eternal idea, an idea which exists by itself, without appertaining to
any mind. The Hegelians say that the existence of an infinite Mind is an
inadmissible conception. They reject this mystery, and prefer to it the
palpable absurdity of an idea which exists in itself, without being the
act of an intelligence. This idea-God we have already encountered in the
writings of M. Vacherot. We shall find it again more than once as we go
on. In Germany, as in France, the theory only becomes popular by
undergoing a transformation. The eternal idea manifests itself in the
mind of man, and exists nowhere else. Above this idea there is nothing.
Man is therefore the summit of things; it is he who must be adored. And
thus it is in fact that Hegel has been understood. In the spring of
1850, Henri Heine wrote as follows in the _Gazette d'Augsbourg_: "I
begin to feel that I am not precisely a biped deity, as Professor Hegel
declared to me that I was twenty-five years ago." The deification of
man: such is the popular translation of the philosophy of the idea.
Would you have a further proof of this? The following anecdote was
current in my youth, when German idealism was at the height of its
popularity. A student going to call on one of his fellow-students, found
him stretched on his bed, or his sofa, and exhibiting all the signs of
an ecstatic contemplation. "Why, what are you doing there?" inquired the
visitor. "I am adoring myself," replied the young adept in philosophy.

I am not examining the doctrines of Hegel with reference to the history
of metaphysics, and within the precincts of the school in which it
occupies a large place and demands the most serious attention; I am