THE STUDY OF SOCIOLOGY. 727 



that for this reason he limits himself to an account of English specula- 

 tion in this department. 1 



And then, if, instead of Psychology and Ethics, Philosophy at 

 large comes in question, there is independent testimony of kindred 

 nature to be cited. Thus, in the first number of La Critique Philo- 

 sophique, published under the direction of M. Renouvier, the acting 

 editor, M. Pillon writes : 



" In England a great amount of work is done in the field of thought. . . . 

 Not alone does England surpass France in ardor and in work (for that is not 

 saying much), and in the interest attaching to the researches and discussions of 

 her thinkers: she even surpasses Germany itself in this last point." 



And still more recently M. Martis, in the leading French periodi- 

 cal, has been referring to 



" The new ideas whioh have sprung up in free England, and which are des- 

 tined one day to metamorphose the natural sciences." " 



So that, while Mr. Arnold is lamenting the want of ideas in Eng- 

 land, it is discovered abroad that the genesis of ideas here is extremely 

 active. While he thinks our ideas are commonplace, our neighbors 

 find them new, to the extent of being revolutionary. Oddly enough, 

 at the very time when he is reproaching his countrymen with lack 

 of geist, Frenchmen are asserting that there is more geist here than 

 elsewhere ! Nor is there wanting other testimony of kindred nature. 

 In the lecture above cited, Dr. Cohn, while claiming for Germany a 

 superiority in the number of her earnest workers, says that "England 

 especially has always been, and is particularly now, rich in men whose 

 scientific works are remarkable for thesr astonishing laboriousness, 

 clearness, profundity, and independence of thought " a further recog- 

 nition of the truth that the English, instead of drudging along the old 

 ruts of thought, are distinguished by their ability in striking out new 

 tracks of thought. 



In his essay on the "Functions of Criticism at the Present Time," 

 Mr. Arnold insists that the thing most needful for us now, in all 

 branches of knowledge, is "to see the object as in itself it really is ; " 

 and in "Friendship's Garland," his alter ego, Arminius exhorts our 

 Philistinism " to search and not rest till it sees things more as they 

 really are." Above, I have done that which Mr. Arnold urges ; not 

 by picking up stray facts, but by a systematic examination. Feebug 

 sure that Mr. Arnold has himself taken the course he advises, and is, 

 therefore, familiar with all this evidence, as well as with the large 

 quantity which might be added, I am somewhat puzzled on finding 

 him draw from it a conclusion so different from that which presents it- 

 self to me. Were any one, proceeding on the foregoing data, to assert 

 that, since the beginning of this century, more has been done in Eng- 



1 His reasons for this valuation are more fully given at p. 143. 



2 Revue des Deux Mondts, 1 Fevrier, 1873, p. 731. 



