Description:Translated, annotated, and with an introduction by Klaus Ottmann. The first translation into English of an important early work of the German idealist philosopher F.W.J. Schelling. For Schelling, it is the task of philosophy to lead the soul toward the intuition of the absolute: "Each of us is compelled by nature to seek an absolute, even those still wrapped up in finite things, but if we want to fix one s thoughts on it, it eludes us. It hovers around us eternally, but ... it is only there if one does not have it; as soon as one possesses it, it vanishes."