Page:Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1889) Vol 2.djvu/133

 those to whom it is addressed possess at least the art of reading.

Secondly:—In the cultivation of the whole domain of Science, and therefore in the constitution of the Literary Republic, plan, order, and system are requisite. From Reason as Knowledge, or the Absolute Philosophy, the whole domain of Science may be completely surveyed, and the office of each individual strictly defined. Every one who lays claim to the name of a Scholar must necessarily be in possession of this pure Reason; otherwise, however well-informed he may think himself in some particular department,—if he be ignorant of the ultimate ground of all Science, upon which his own Science depends, then of a surety he cannot understand even his own Science in its ultimate foundations, and indeed has not yet thoroughly penetrated into its significance. Every one can in this way distinctly see when there is something yet awanting in the circle of Science, and what it is which is awanting; and can thus select some particular department as the field of his own exertion. He will not think of completing anew what has been already completed.

All Knowledge which is strictly a priori may be completed and the inquiry closed; and it will be brought to this conclusion so soon as the Literary Republic shall carry on its labours systematically. Empiricism only is infinite; as well in its fixed department, i.e. Nature, in Physics,—as in its changing department, i.e. the varying phenomena of the Human Race, in History. The first, Physics, when all its a priori elements have been distinguished, completed and perfected in their several forms by the higher Reason, will be limited to Experiment; and receive from Reason the Art of rightly comprehending the significance of Experiment, and the knowledge how Nature is to be again interrogated. The second, History, will by the same Reason be relieved of the myths respecting the origin of the Human Race