f the ideals of truth, goodness, and
beauty the more surely will he 'save it.' He realises himself as a
personality, who becomes conscious of his unity with the universal
spiritual life.

Hence there are two fundamental principles underlying Eucken's philosophy
which give to it its distinguishing character. The first is the
metaphysical conception of _a realm of Spirit_--an independent spiritual
Reality, not the product of the natural man, but communicating itself to
him as he strives for, and responds to, it. This spiritual reality
underlies and transcends the outward world. It may be regarded as an
absolute or universal life--the deeper reality of which all visible
things are the expression. The second cardinal principle is the
_doctrine of Activism_. Life is action. Human duty lies in a world of
strife. We have to contend for a spiritual life-content. Here Eucken
has much in common with Fichte.[30] But while Fichte starts with
self-analysis, and loses sight of error, care, and sin, Eucken starts
with actual conflict, and ever retains a keen sense of these hampering
elements. The evil of the world is not to be solved simply by looking
down upon the world from some superior optimistic standpoint, and
pronouncing it very good. The only way to solve it is the practical one,
to leave the negative standing, and press on to the deeper
affirmative--the positive truth, that beneath the world of nature there
exists a deeper reality of spirit, of which we become participators by
the freedom and activity of our lives. We are here to acquire a new
spiritual world, but {123} it is a world in which the past is taken up
and transfigured. Against naturalism, which acquiesces in the present
order of the universe, and against mere intellectualism, which simply
investigates it, Eucken never wearies of protesting. He demands, first,
a fundamental cleavage in the inmost being of man, and a deliverance from
the natural view of things; and he contends, secondly, for a spiritual
awakening and an energetic endeavour to realise our spiritual resources.
Not by thought but by action is the problem of life to be solved. Hence
his philosophy is not a mere theory about life, but is itself a factor in
the great work of spiritual redemption which gives to life its meaning
and aim.

That which makes Eucken's positive idealism specially valuable is his
application of it to religion. Religion has been in all ages the mighty
uplifting