"[163]
The parentage of literary Rationalism in England is attributable to
Thomas Carlyle. Having "found his soul" in the philosophy of Germany, we
hear him, in 1827, defending the criticism of Kant as "distinctly the
greatest intellectual achievement of the century in which it came to
light." But the opinions of Fichte and Richter have subsequently had
more weight with Carlyle, and he has elaborated them in many forms.
Fichte, in particular, has influenced him to adopt a theory which gives
a practical denial to the Scriptural declarations of the fallen state of
humanity. Effort being goodness, the exterior world is only tolerable
because it furnishes an arena for the contest of work. Man will never
receive any prize unless he bestir himself to the exercise of his own
omnipotence. Individual life is all the real life possessed by this
world, and it is gifted with a spiritual wand capable of calling up
wondrous forms of beauty and worth. It matters not so much what man
works for, since his effort is the important matter.
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