in order to be understood. And to know
the man is to realise this in a fuller measure than his writings can
ever show. He has to be seen and heard before the real significance of
his message becomes clear. His personality attracts men and women of all
schools of thought, from all parts of the world, and they all feel that
his message of a reality which is beyond knowledge--though knowledge
forms an integral part of it--is a new revelation of the meaning of life
and existence. Professor Windelband, in his _History of Philosophy_ and
elsewhere, describes Eucken as the creator of a new Metaphysic--a
metaphysic not of the Schools but of Life. This aspect will be discussed
at fuller length in later pages, so that it may be passed over for the
present.

Eucken believes in the reality and necessity of his message. He is aware
that that message is contrary to the current terminology and meaning of
the philosophy of our day. Some of his great constructive books were
written as far back as 1888, and have remained, almost until our own
day, in a large measure unnoticed. [p.19] The _Einheit des Geisteslebens
in Bewusstsein und Tat der Menschheit_ is a case in point. It is one of
his greatest books, and its value was not seen until the last few years.
But the philosophy of the present day in Germany is tending more and
more in the direction of Eucken's. Writers such as the late Class and
Dilthey, Siebeck, Windelband, Muensterberg, Rickert, Volkelt, Troeltsch
--naming but a small number of the idealistic thinkers of the present
--are tending in the direction of the new Metaphysic presented by Eucken
in the book already referred to as well as in the _Kampf um einen
geistigen Lebensinhalt_.

The philosophy of Germany at the present day is making several attempts
at a metaphysic of the universe. Much critical and constructive work has
been done during the past quarter of a century and is being done to-day.
The attempts to construct systems of metaphysics may be witnessed on the
sides of natural science and of philosophy. Haeckel, Ostwald, and Mach
have each given the world a constructive system of thought. But these
three systems have not, except in a secondary way, attempted a
metaphysic of human life. Haeckel's system is mainly poetico-mythical,
chiefly on the lines of some of the pre-Socratic philosophers. Ostwald's
attempt is to show the unity of nature and life through his principle of
Energetics; and Mach's may be described as a