As it is hard for common apprehension to conceive this _absolute_, and seize upon this identity of thought and thing, Schelling invented a faculty of mind expressly for the comprehension of such profound doctrines of philosophy. He called it _intellectual intuition_. Those who possess it not--and it is by no means general--must be content to live without philosophy. Nor can those on whom nature has failed to bestow this intellectual intuition, acquire it by any study or industry of their own. _Philosophus nascitur, non fit_. Viewed from one aspect, Schelling's philosophy is not without a certain charm. "Spirit is invisible nature, nature is visible spirit." In this view of things, if mind loses its pre-eminence, nature, or the visible world, is exalted and spiritualised. It is a system likely to fascinate the poet and the artist, and we believe it has had a recognised influence on the cultivation of the fine arts in Germany. It awakens our enthusiasm for nature. More than ever is mind, is deity, seen in the visible world. Nature is, in fact, deified, whatever other sacrifices are made. But if there was something for enthusiasm to lay hold of in the system of Schelling, there was much wanting, it seems, to satisfy the rigid demands of philosophy. _His_ cosmogony, his manner of tracing, _a priori_, the development of all things from the absolute, was considered, by those who understand such profundities, to be deficient in accuracy. Hegel next trod "with wandering feet The dark, unbottomed, infinite abyss." And we are told gravely, by grave expositors, how, beginning with _nothing_, he showed, with logical precision, how every thing had regularly proceeded from it! In the system of Hegel, object and subject are both lost sight of: nothing exists but the relation between them. As the thing and the thought of it are identical, and as the essence of a thought is the relation between two terms, it follows very logically that this relation is all, and that nothing really exists but relations. We should have supposed this to be a fair _reductio ad absurdum_, proving (if the matter could need of proof) that the _thing_ and the _thought_ were not identical. But the march of ideal philosophy was not to be so easily arrested. We have now reached what is distinguished as _absolute idealism_. "They (the three idealisms) may be thus illustrated," (writes Mr Lewes in his _History of Philosophy_.) "I see a tree. Fichte tells me that it is I alone who exist; the tree is a modification of my mind. This is _subjective_ idealism. Schelling tells me that both the tree and my _ego_ are existences equally real, or ideal, but they are nothing less than manifestations of the absolute. This is _objective_ idealism. But Hegel tells me, that all these explanations are false. The only thing really existing is the idea--the relation. The ego and the tree are but two terms of the relation, and owe their reality to it. This is _absolute_ idealism."[7]