Wolff, we cannot ignore
his good intentions. Even before his birth, he had been consecrated by
his father to the service of God; and when he was old enough to manifest
his own taste, he showed a strong predilection for theological study. He
says of himself: "Having been devoted to the study of theology by a vow,
I also had chosen it for myself; and my intention has all along been to
serve God in the ministry, even when I was already professor at Halle,
until at length against my will I was led away from it, God having
arranged circumstances in such a manner that I could not carry out this
intention. But having lived in my native place, Breslau, among the
Catholics, and having perceived from my very childhood the zeal of the
Lutherans and Roman Catholics against one another, the idea was always
agitating my mind, whether it would not be possible so distinctly to
show the truth in theology that it would not admit of any contradiction.
When afterwards I learned that the mathematicians were so sure of their
ground that every one must acknowledge it to be true, I was anxious to
study mathematics, for the sake of the method, in order to give
diligence to reduce theology to incontrovertible certainty." These
words explain Wolff's whole system. He would make doctrine so plain by
mathematical demonstration that it must be accepted. But the poison of
his theory lay in the assumption that what could not be mathematically
demonstrated was either not true or not fit to be taught. He sets out
with the principle that the human intellect is capable of knowing truth.
He divides his philosophy into two parts: _first_, the _theoretical_:
_second_, the _practical_. The former he subdivides into logic,
metaphysics, and physics; the latter into morals, natural right, and
politics. He admits a revelation, and proves its possibility by
maintaining that God can do whatever he wishes. But this revelation must
have signs in itself, by which it may be known. _First._ It must contain
something necessary for man to know, which he cannot learn in any other
way. _Second._ The things revealed must not be opposed to the divine
perfections, and they must not be self-contradictory: a thing is above
reason and contrary to reason when opposed to these principles. _Third._
A divine revelation can contain neither anything which contradicts
reason and experience, nor anything which may be learned from them, for
God is omniscient,--he knows the general as well as