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140 THE FOURFOLD ROOT. [CHAP. V.
theless repeat here, because, as the Spanish proverb says,
" No Tiuy peor sordo que quien no quiere
"
oir (None so
deaf as those who will not hear) : namely, that if Reason
were a faculty specially designed for Metaphysics, a faculty
which supplied the material of knowledge and could re
veal that which transcends all possible experience, the
same harmony would 4 necessarily reign between men on
metaphysical and religious subjects for they are iden
tical as on mathematical ones, and those who differed in
opinion from the rest would simply be looked upon as not
quite right in their mind. Now exactly the contrary takes
place, for on no subject are men so completely at variance
with one another as upon these. Ever since men first
began to think, philosophical systems have opposed and
combated each other everywhere; they are, in fact,
often diametrically contrary to one another. Ever since
men first began to believe (which is still longer), religions
have fought against one another with fire and sword, with
excommunication and cannons. But in times when faith
was most ardent, it was not the lunatic asylum, but the
Inquisition, with all its paraphernalia, which awaited in
dividual heretics. Here again, therefore, experience flatly
and categorically contradicts the false assertion, that
Reason is a faculty for direct metaphysical knowledge, or,
to speak more clearly, of inspiration from above. Surely
it is high time that severe judgment should be passed
upon this Reason, since, horribile dictu, so lame, so
palpable a falsehood continues after half a century to
be hawked about all over Germany, wandering year by
year from the professors chair to the students bench,
and from bench to chair, and has actually found a few
simpletons, even in France, willing to believe in it, and
carry it about in that country also. Here, however, French
bon-sens will very soon send la raison transcendentale about
its business.