supports an idealistic theory of things; and we may add, that precisely the resolution of psychical activity into brain and nerve mechanism is the surest way to the knowledge that here the horizon of our knowledge closes in, without touching the question what mind is in itself. The senses give us, as Helmholtz says, effects of things, not true pictures nor things in themselves. But to the mere effects belong also the senses themselves, together with the brain and the molecular movements which we suppose in it. We must therefore recognise the existence. of a transcendental order of things, whether this rests on 'things-in-themselves,' or whether-since even the thingin-itself' is but a last application of our representative thought-it rests on mere relations, which exhibit themselves in various minds as various kinds and stages of the sensible element, without our being able to conceive an adequate appearance of the absolute in a knowing mind.67 67 Comp. Der Selbstständige Werth des Wissens, Wien, 1869, S. 35. FOURTH SECTION. ETHICAL MATERIALISM AND RELIGION. CHAPTER I. POLITICAL ECONOMY AND DOGMATIC EGOISM. It might not have been out of place, besides the natural sciences, to submit political economy and the related branches to a close examination; but here we already glide involuntarily over into the sphere of the practical questions, the solution of which forms the result of our critical effort. We examine a science, and we find in its doctrines only the mirror of social conditions; we wish to see where ethical Materialism is nowadays, and we find it developed into a system of dogma unlike anything that Aristippos and Epikuros knew. In place of Pleasure, modern times have put Egoism; and while the philosophical Materialists hesitated in their ethic, there was developed together with political economy a special theory of egoism, which more than any other element of modern times bears on it the stamp of Materialism. The roots of this phenomenon strike back into the age before Kant and the French Revolution. In Italy, in the Netherlands, in France, the modern spirit of inquiry had long ago subjected commerce, international intercourse, the operation of taxes and imposts, the sources of the prosperity or impoverishment of whole nations, to a theoretical examination; but it was only in England that the doctrines of political economy developed together with the rising flood of industry and world-wide commerce into a kind of science. Adam Smith, who found only moderate approval for his Theory of Morals,' won the most extensive reputation by his 'Inquiry into the Wealth of Nations.' Sympathy and Interest were with him the two great springs of human actions. From sympathy he deduced all the virtues of the individual and all the advantages of society; but after he has found Justice also by a somewhat artificial way, he makes it the true foundation of the state and of society. Inclination between the members of society, friendly regard for each other's good, are beautiful things, but they may be lacking without the state being ruined. Justice cannot be spared; with it every community stands and falls. The Theory of Morals' allows every individual in the effort after wealth and honour to exert his powers to the utmost in order to surpass his competitors, so long only as he does not injustice; in the doctrine of the Wealth of Nations,' the axiom is completely asserted that every one in pursuing his own advantage at the same time furthers the good of all. But the Government has nothing further to do than to maintain all freedom for this struggle of interests.1 1 The two main works of Adam Smith have often been improperly separated, and the 'Theory of Morals' treated as a comparatively unimportant first production, which may be quite left out of account when we come to the Wealth of Nations.' That the fundamental idea of both treatises ripened side by side in Smith's mind has been conclusively shown by Buckle (Hist. Civil., c. xx.), and, moreover, Smith himself declares in the preface to one of the later editions of the Theory of Morals' that both works sprang from a common plan; that the 'Wealth of Nations,' however, forms merely a fragment of a comprehensive social and political work which was intended to follow the Theory of Morals.' At the same time we may doubt, with Lexis (Französ. Ausfuhrprämien, S. 5), whether Adam Smith consciously so employed the method of abstraction as in one world to make man act only from egoism, in the other only from sym. pathy. Buckle, who tries at some length to establish this view, finds in this procedure an advantage over the induction which starts from the facts. By simplifying the principles, the application of the deductive method is rendered possible, and the fault of one's idleness is supposed to be corrected by starting from dif |