INTRODUCTION. 33 



Unless I believed that our age was elaborating a deeper 12. 



Deeper con- 



and more significant conception of this unity or all human ception of 



the unity 



interests, of the inner mental life of man and mankind, f^^tT 

 I do not think I should have deemed it worth while to 

 write the following volumes : for it is really their main 

 end and principal object to trace the co-operation of many 

 agencies in the higher work of our century ; the growing 

 conviction that all mental efforts combine together to 

 produce and uphold the ideal possessions of our race ; that 

 it is not in one special direction nor under one specific 

 term that this treasure can be cultivated, but that 

 individuals and peoples in their combined international 

 life exhibit and perpetuate it. 



A number of words have during this century been in- is. 



Different 



troduced by various systems of philosophy to denote this terms f ? r 



* r expressing 



unity of the inner life of mankind : Hegel's Geist, Comte's this unity> 

 Humanity, Lotze's Microcosm, Spencer's Social Organism, 

 all refer to special sides and aspects of the same subject. 

 And it is interesting to note how the great schools of 

 Idealism in Germany, of Positivism in France, of Evolu- 

 tion physical and mental in England, and in spite of 

 their apparently disintegrating tendencies how the social 

 changes of the Eevolution and the specialisations of science 

 have all combined to emphasise this unity of human life 

 and interests. To show this in detail is the object I have 

 in view. So far we have not committed ourselves to any 

 of the many existing theories : the word Thought seems to M. 



, . . , . Definition of 



me to be capable of the widest application, and to denote Thought. 

 in the most catholic spirit whatever of truth and value 

 may be contained in the combined aim and endeavour of 

 VOL. i. c 



