Excerpt from History of Philosophy, Vol. 2 of 3 In accordance with the character of the different epochs, modern philosophy has to rise above the philosophical wisdom of the ancients and the theological wisdom of lthe imiddle Ages. N o theories will meet the requirements of modern times, nor deserve the name of philosophy except such as recognise both the here, or real, of antiquity, and the hereafter, or ideal, of the Middle Ages, and attempt to reconcile the two. Any system which left one of these sides out.of account, or which did not admit that there was a point where the two coincided, would cease to be philosophical.' And the differ ence between systems depends upon the different manner in which these two sides are conceived of (as extension and thought, as nature and spirit, as real and rational, and in a Special degree upon the different methods of reconciling them. In the latter lies the main feature, and, therefore, the real principle of any system of modern philosophy. In the period of transition from the Middle Ages, there appeared side by side the philosophers who forgot God, and the mystics who despised the world. They Showed where the point Was to be found from which both natural and supernatural know ledge are seen to be' subordinate and partial aspects of a whole. For the Microcosmos of the' former, and the Micro theos or, God in miniature, of bohme, is.man, whose function. Is, to introduce thoughts of God into the world, to lead it to God. When philosophy becomes know ledge of man, it. Does more than merely transcend the one-sidedness of knowledge of the' Cosmos, and. Of know ledge of God; it now for the first time corresponds to our idea of it 2 and. Henceforth the path that philosophy follows is not to reach self by starting from the world or from God, but to start from self and find one's way back to a world and to God. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.