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532 HER BART. ble power. Since a speculative knowledge of the nature of God is impossible, the only task which remains for metaphysics is the removal of improper determinations from that which tradition and phantasy have to say on the subject. We are to conceive God as personal, extramun^ dane, and omnipotent, as the creator, not of the reals them- selves, but of their purposive coexistence {Zusammen). In order, however, to rise from the idea of the original, most real, and most powerful being to that of the most excellent being we need the practical Ideas, without which the former would remain an indifferent theoretical concept. Man can pray only to a wise, holy, perfect, just, and good God^ This, in essential outline, is the content of the scattered observations on the philosophy of religion given by Her- bart. Drobisch {Fundamental Doctrines of the Philosophy of Religion, 1840), from the standpoint of religious criticism and with a renewal of the moral argument, and Taute (1840-52) and Fliigel {Miracles and the Possibility of a Knowledge of God, 1869) with an apologetic tendency and one toward a belief in miracles, have, among others, endea- vored to make up for the lack of a detailed treatment of this discipline by Herbart — from which, moreover, much of value could hardly have been expected in view of the jejune- ness of his metaphysical conceptions and the insufficiency of his appreciation of evil. It remains only to glance at Herbart's Esthetics. The beautiful is distinguished from the agreeable and the desir- able, which, like it, are the objects of preference and rejec- tion, by the facts, first, that it arouses an involuntary and disinterested judgment of approval ; and second, that it is a predicate which is ascribed to the object or is objective. To these is added, thirdly, that while desire seeks for that which is to come, taste possesses in the present that which it judges. That which pleases or displeases is alway the form, never the matter; and further, is always a relation, for that which is entirely simple is indifferent. As in music we have suc- ceeded in discovering the simplest relations, which please immediately and absolutely — we know not why — so this must be attempted in all branches of the theory of art.