INTRODUCTION. 



47 



typical representative of that change being David Hume, 

 who, starting with the metaphysical problems involved in 

 Locke's and Berkeley's writings, was from them led on to 

 the study of moral, political, and economic questions, and 

 ended by devoting himself to the study of history. 1 At 

 the end of his career political and historical writings 

 were as frequent in English literature as metaphysical 

 and theological writings had been at the beginning. The 

 causes which have effected the same transition from the 

 metaphysical to the historical mode of treatment in Ger- 

 many during the present century are similar to those 

 existing in England in the last century ; but the whole 

 movement has taken place on a larger scale, penetrates 

 deeper into the mental life and work of the nation, and 

 cannot be so easily studied in the writings of any great 

 representative. 



Whilst in Germany historical studies are now foremost, 



24. 



Causes of 

 transition 

 from meta- 

 physical to 

 historical- 

 method. 



1 I am quite aware that general- 

 isations of this kind must be made 

 and used with great caution. I 

 therefore refer my readers to Les- 

 lie Stephen's ' History of English 

 Thought in the Eighteenth Cen- 

 tury,' especially to the Introduc- 

 tion, where the typical position of 

 Hume is fully discussed, and also 

 to the last chapter of the second 

 volume, where he says of Hume 

 (vol. ii. p. 381, 1st ed.) : " Hume was, 

 in one sense, far in advance of his 

 time, and indeed of the average 

 opinion of the present time. But 

 the change may in many respects 

 ibe described as a revolt from 

 Hume's opinions, much more than 

 a development of them. . . . The 

 history of philosophical and of theo- 

 logical opinion in England is a his- 

 tory of gradual decay down to the 



revolutionary era." And p. 444: 

 " The last half of the century was 

 pre-eminently historical. As civil- 

 isation progresses, as records are 

 better preserved, and a greater 

 permanence in social organisation 

 makes men more disposed to look 

 beyond their immediate surround- 

 ings, a tendency to historical in- 

 quiry is naturally awakened. This 

 cause alone, without the more 

 philosophical considerations which 

 might lead a Hume or a Gibbon 

 to turn from abstract investigations 

 to historical inquiries, may account 

 for the growth of antiquarianism in 

 the latter years." But the mere 

 statistics of English literature in 

 the eighteenth century suffice to 

 prove the decline of argumenta- 

 tive and the growth of realistic 

 literature. 



