o much that goes by the name of Idealism. How can
any system be more than a half-truth when its final meaning is presented
with but little attention to the highest aspect we know in the world
--to human life in its struggles and conquests, [p.210] in its living
and loving, and its forward movement towards some distant goal? The
special value of Eucken's teaching lies, then, in the fact that it
interprets what happens, can happen, and ought to happen within life
itself. No system which leaves out the soul with its possibilities is
complete. This has been done too often in the past, and is being done
to-day. Is it, then, a wonder that philosophy has given so very little
help to Life in its complex problems without and its sharp opposites and
contradictions within? Life is more and needs more than a philosophy of
words, devoid of power, can offer it. Life, when at its best, believes
in the all-power of its own spiritual potency; it has faith in the
possibility of ascent from height to height, as well as in the
possibility of an incessant progress not only of individuals but of the
whole of mankind.[72] A System stands or falls according as it is able
to conceive of Life in such a manner. And Eucken has done this as
probably no other living philosopher has done it.

If we turn to _Immanent Idealism_, we discover the same failure. It
emphasises the presence within consciousness of what is idealistic and
noble, but it leaves out the objective and imperative character of what
is present. It also forgets that the possession of ideals as ideas is
only the initial stage of such ideals becoming a very portion [p.211] of
the deepest substance of soul itself. We may deceive ourselves even with
the contemplation of the best ideals; they can never become truly ours
until the will is set in motion and the whole nature is stirred to its
depths in order to press forward to what it perceives as having infinite
value. Something has inevitably to happen within the depth of the soul
before its real creation can advance. Eucken here, again, has perceived
this truth and presents it everywhere with great power. His Philosophy
is an _Activism_ of the most powerful type. He is aware that to _know_
and to _be_ are so far apart. But his Activism is not a mere movement of
the individual's will, brought forth by anything that has grown within
it as a private inheritance. The Activism is started and kept going on
its course by the over-personal norms a