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PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 211
fessors of Theology. For at the bottom they have really
been this for some time already, and have served quite
long enough as volunteers.
Meanwhile my honest and kindly advice to the young
generation is, not to waste any time with University
philosophy, but to study Kant s works and my own
instead. I promise them that there they will learn some
thing substantial, that will bring light and order into their
brains : so far at least as they may be capable of receiving
them. It is not good to crowd round a wretched farthing
still less
rushlight when brilliant torches are close by ;
to run after will o the wisps. Above all, my truth-
seeking young friends, beware of letting our professors
tell you what is contained in the Critique of Pure Reason.
Bead it yourselves, and you will find in it something
very different from what they deem it advisable for you
to know. In our time a great deal too much study is
generally devoted to the History of Philosophy ; for this
study, being adapted by its very nature to substitute know
ledge for reflection, is just now cultivated downright with
a view to making philosophy consist in its own history. It
is not only of doubtful necessity, but even of questionable
profit, to acquire a superficial
opinions
half-knowledge of the
and systems of all the philosophers who have
what more does the most
taught for 2,500 years ; yet
honest history of philosophy give ? A real knowledge of
philosophers can only be acquired from their own works,
and not from the distorted image of their doctrines as it is
1
found in the commonplace head. But it is really urgent
that order should be brought into our heads by some sort
of philosophy, and that we should at the same time learn
1 "
Potius de rebus ipsis judicare debemus, qiiam pro magno habere,
de hominibus quid quisque senserit scire" says St. Augustine ("
De civ.
Dei" 1. 19, c. 3). Under the present mode of proceeding, however, the
philosophical lecture-room becomes a sort of rag-fair for old worn-out,