And over and above that he had possessed himself of the art of expressing, in quite natural language, very difficult thoughts; those abstract and metaphysical conceptions especially, in which German mind has been rich, which are bad masters, but very useful ministers towards the understanding, towards an analytical survey, of all that the intellect has produced.
Action is but coarsened thought." That is but an ingenious metaphysical point, as he goes on to show.
"Well," said Jo, laughing, "if my people are `philosophical and metaphysical', it isn't my fault, for I know nothing about such things, except what I hear father say;, sometimes.
Her father liked the metaphysical streak which had unconsciously got into it, so that was allowed to remain though she had her doubts about it.
If you do not now point out a flaw in my definition, you are disqualified later on from advancing metaphysical arguments.
Another time, when Ernest had just said that the metaphysical philosophers could never stand the test of truth, Dr.
Well, then, however the old sea-captains may order me about--however they may thump and punch me about, I have the satisfaction of knowing that it is all right; that everybody else is one way or other served in much the same way -- either in a physical or
metaphysical point of view, that is; and so the universal thump is passed round, and all hands should rub each other's shoulder-blades, and be content.
The
metaphysical conception of truth passes into a psychological one, which is continued in the Laws, and is the final form of the Platonic philosophy, so far as can be gathered from his own writings (see especially Laws).
The faculties of the mind itself have never yet been distinguished and defined, with satisfactory precision, by all the efforts of the most acute and
metaphysical philosophers.
Levin felt that it would be improper to enter upon a
metaphysical discussion with the priest, and so he said in reply merely what was a direct answer to the question.
It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the
metaphysical, or in it highest sense, the physical secrets of the world.
But along with the civil and
metaphysical history of man, another history goes daily forward,--that of the external world,--in which he is not less strictly implicated.