Fichte was followed by Schelling, and Schelling by Hegel, each differing from his predecessor, but all concurring in the attempt _to identify "Seyn," or absolute Being, with Thought_, and to represent everything in the universe as a mere mode or manifestation of one Infinite Essence.

The _identity_ of Existence and Thought is the fundamental principle of Hegel's doctrine.

With him, Being and the Idea of being, are the same; and Being and Thought are combined in the "Absolute," which is at once ideal and real (l'etre and l'idee).

With him, the idea of God is that of _a logical process of thought_, "ever unfolding itself, but never unfolded,"-- a dialectic movement rather than a Divine Being, which realizes itself, and reaches a state of self-consciousness in man.

God, nature, and man, are but one process of thought, considered in different aspects; all finite personalities are only so many thoughts of one eternal mind; God is in man, and man is in God, and the progress of humanity, in all its stages, is a Divine development.
This bare outline of these systems must suffice for our present purpose, and we now proceed to offer a few remarks on the doctrine of Ideal as distinguished from Material Pantheism.
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