Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 6.djvu/590

 574 NEW BOOKS. and coherent system, and that the main point in any thorough criticism of his teaching must be to inquire, not whether it is genial, or suggestive, or inspiring, but whether it has been proved to be true. From this it follows that it is impossible to make any serious study of Hegel without mastering the Logic. The Phenomenologie is nothing but an introduc- tion, the other works are only applications. On the validity of the Logic everything depends. It is not, however, the beginner only who will find this book valuable. It would be impossible for any one, however well acquainted with Hegel's own works, to read it without gaining new light on the system as a whole, and, in a still greater degree, on the details of the Logic. The first chapter is devoted to a general account of the dialectic method. Here Mr. Noel strikes, we think, the right note at the be- ginning by pointing out that the method is by no means so mysterious and unparalleled as has been asserted. " Le systeme de Hegel n'est que celui de Kant debarrass^ de ses inconsequences " (p. 5). Nor does it reject the principle of contradiction. "Si en effet 1' esprit ne repugnait a la contradiction, s : il pouvait y denieurer et s'y complaire, le proces dialectique s'arreterait de lui-meme ou pour inieux dire il ne saurait commencer. Est-il en effet autre chose que 1'effort continu de 1'esprit pour s'affranchir de la contradiction ? " (p. 15). The general view taken by Mr. Noel of the validity of the dialectic agrees with that taken by Mr. Bradley in his Logic that the motive force of the process lies, not in the beginning, but in the synthesis which forms the end. Thus he says, " Loin de faire de 1'abstrait le principe du concret, il s'attache obstinement a montrer que celui-la ne se com- prend que par celui-ci" (p. 11). And again, "Si la contradiction nous y amene et nous la fait decouvrir, ce n'est pas elle qui la produit. Elle preexistait en nous & 1'aperception de la contradiction et c'est sa pre- sence qui, quoique non remarquee, nous perinis de poser la these et 1'anthithese ainsi que leur rapport " (p. 16). On these principles he finds no difficult}- when, in chapter v. (" La Logique dans le Systeme "), he comes to deal with the transition from Logic to Nature which Prof. Seth finds so fallacious. "Prise dans son ensemble, la Logique soutient avec 1'extra-logique un rapport analogue a celui qu'en son sein chaque categoric soutient avec la suivante. Elle est un moment de 1'Idee dont la Nature et 1'Esprit sont les moments ulterieurs " (p. 117). This is followed by a careful discussion of the most perplexing feature in the transition the emphasis which Hegel lays on the freedom of the passage to Nature (p. 124). In chapters ii., iii. and iv., the three books of the Logic are discussed in detail. The Greater Logic is followed, where it differs from the Logic of the Encyclopaedia. This course is obviously the most convenient for French students, since the Greater Logic has been translated into French, while the Smaller has not. And it must be admitted that the alterations which Hegel made in the argument when he composed the shorter version are scarcely improvements. On the other hand, the Smaller Logic pre- sumably gives us Hegel's final view of the system. These three chapters are in some respects the most valuable part of the book, but it is of course impossible to give any idea of their merits by extracts. A good example of Mr. Noel's clear and thoughtful exposition may be formed in his treatment of the vez-y difficult transition from Werden to Dasein (p. 25). The seventh chapter is entitled "Le Dogrnatisme de Hegel". The author has no difficulty in showing that Hegelianisn bears no very close relation to Spinozism. He then goes on to suggest that, of all the