HIS   'OPUS  MAXIMUM.'  115

realities  from  barren  dialectic.  His  reverence  for  the
manifestations  of  Nature  as  absolute  truth,  and  the
study  of  them  as  the  sole  real  source  of  Knowledge,
shines  forth  from  every  page  of  his  writings.  If  he
misconceived  the  character  and  purposes  of  Nature,  it
must  be  owned  that  she  had  denied  him  the  especial
faculties  requisite  for  the  recognition  of  her  grandeur
and  benevolence.  There  is  something  plausible  in  his
pessimism  until  we  consider  on  how  exceedingly  con-
tracted and  partial,  and  consequently  deceptive  view  pf
the  universe  it  is  based.  Schopenhauer,  though  so
merciless  to  the  foibles  of  philosophers,  was  not  exempt
from  the  nearly  universal  one  of  assuming  that  all  the
facts  of  existence  can  be  comprehended  in  a  formula
with  as  much  accuracy  as  the  composition  of  water  can
be  expressed  by  chemical  notation.  '

His  philosophy  may  in  one  aspect  be  viewed  as  a
sublime  example  of  the  cardinal  proposition  of  specula-
tive thought,  the  ideality  and  unreality  of  apparent
existence,  the  utter  dependence  of  the  preconceived
object,  be  it  in  appearance  never  so  substantial  and  ma-
jestic, upon  the  perceiving  subject.  Such  a  system,
elaborated  with  however  rigid  logic,  fails  to  commend
itself  to  the  instincts  of  a  world  of  beings  diverse  in
mental  constitution  from  its  author.  For  mankind  in
the  mass  it  remains  an  idle  play  of  ingeuLuty,  or^  an
empty  abstraction.     Such  exercises  of  the  reason,  how-

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116  ARTHUR  SCHOPENHAUER.
