Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 11.djvu/37

 26 K. PEARSON : terms of Spinoza, and describes the phenomenal world in the language of Kant ; but his theory of the esse //?/v// ///?'/> /A is identical with Wyclif s, while he states the doctrines of re- nunciation and of the futility of human knowledge in the form at least of primitive Christianity. Is it to be wondered at that the deepest thinker among the German mystics is the least intelligible? He is the focus from which spread the ever-diverging rays of many mediaeval and modern philoso- phical systems. For our purpose it is first necessary to obtain some conception of the relation which Eckehart sup- posed to exist between the phenomenal world and God. According to our philosopher the active reason (din ii-irkende vernunft) receives the impressions from external objects (Azewendikeit) and places them before the passive reason (din ltdende vernunft}. These impressions or perceptions as pre- sented by the active reason are formulated in space and time, have a ' here and a now ' (hie uncle nti). Man's know- ledge of objects in the ordinary sense is obtained solely by means of these impressions (bilde), he perceives things only in time and space. (Pfeiffer, DeutsrJn- J///.s7//.r/ -, ii., 17, 19, 143, &c.) Of an entirely different character from human knowledge is the divine knowledge. While the active reason must separate its perceptions in time and space, the Deity comprehends all things independently of these perceptional frameworks. The divine mind does not pass from one object to another, like the human mind, which can only concentrate itself on one object at a time to the exclusion of all others. It grasps all things in one instant and in one point > mitt n i nidi r in cinn' l/irke und in eime punte. /&., 20 ; cp. 14-15). Shortly, in the language of Kant, while the human intellect reaches only the world of sense, the divine is busied with the DiiKji' lt sir//. This higher knowledge is of cour>e absolutely unintelligible to the human reason. " All the truth which any master ever taught with his own iv: and understand ing, or ever can teach till the last day, will not in the least explain this knowledge 1 und its nature" (//>., 10). Shortly, the J>in : /<- n .s/V//. form the limit of the human understanding. 1 But, just as Kant causes tlir practical reason to transcend this limit, so Meister Kckehart allows a i: tical revelation or implantation of this higher knowlec this process lie terms the eternal birth (din t'/'-iyr n ii. The soul ceasing to sec things under the, forms of time and space grasps them as they exist in the mind of (lod, and '('].. AV///7. -/ /(//, Kli-iiifii1;ul<-lnv, ii. Th., 1 Alitli., 2 Buck, 3 H;uii>t.-t.