354  THE  POSITIVE  OUTCOME  OF  PHILOSOPHY

V

THE  UNDERSTANDING  AS  A  PART  OF  THE  HUMAN  SOUL

The  human  intellect  or  understanding,  the  special
object  of  all  philosophy,  is  a  part,  and  in  our  case  the
most  prominent  part,  of  the  human  soul.  Gustav  Theo-
dore Fechner,  a  forgotten  star  on  the  literary  firma-
ment, posed  the  question  of  the  soul  in  his  time  and
attempted  to  answer  it.  In  so  doing  he  clothed  the
result  of  past  philosophies  in  a  peculiar  garb  which
looked  fantastic  enough  at  first  sight.  He  regards  the
outcome  of  philosophy  merely  as  an  individual  product
and  he  is  so  full  of  veneration  for  the  ancient  terms,
such  as  immortal  souls,  God,  Chistianity,  that  he  does
not  care  to  dismiss  them,  no  matter  how  roughly  he
handles  their  essence.
Fechner  extends  the  possession  of  a  soul  to  human
beings,  animals,  plants  stones,  planets ;  in  short,  to  the
whole  world.
This  is  simply  saying  that  the  human  soul  is  of  the
same  nature  as  all  the  rest  of  the  world,  or  vice  versa,
that  all  natural  things  have  the  same  nature  as  the
human  soul.  Not  only  animals,  hut  also  stones  and
planets  have  something  analogous  to  our  human  soul.
Fechner  is  not  fantastic  at  bottom,  and  yet  how
fantastical  it  sounds  to  hear  him  say:     *'l  wont  out

walking  on  a  spring  morning.  The  fields  were  green.
the  birds  were  singing,  the  dew  sparkled,  the  smoke
-  toward  the  clouds.  Here  and  there  a  human  be-
ing stirred.  A  glory  of  light  was  diffused  over  it  all.
