INTRODUCTION. 



61 



brilliant era of literature, and the whole of Europe was 

 illuminated by the light of science which emanated from 

 Paris during the first third of this century. History of 

 philosophy has little to say about Goethe, though his 

 work embodies for us probably the deepest thought of 

 modern times. Again, the only great and novel system 

 of philosophy which France has produced during this 

 century is that of Comte, but it has had only small 

 influence in its own country ; and who would say that 

 it reflects French thought of the period as Voltaire 

 and Montesquieu reflected the thought of the last 

 century ? Hegel himself, who was intent upon tracing 

 the working of the human mind in the systems of 

 philosophy, declared that philosophy is the latest fruit 

 of civilisation, that the special idea which governs any 

 period is already dying out when it appears in a system. 1 



1 The principal passage expound- 

 ing this idea of Hegel's is to be 

 found in the introduction to the 

 course of lectures which he delivered 

 at Berlin repeatedly during the years 

 1816 to 1830. See his collected 

 works, vol. xiii. p. 66 : " Philosophy 

 makes its appearance at the time 

 when the mind of a nation has 

 worked itself out of the indifferent 

 dulness of the early life of nature, 

 as well as out of the period of pas- 

 sionate interest ; inasmuch as the 

 direction towards detail has spent 

 itself, the mind transcends its 

 natural form it passes on from 

 practical morals, from the force of 

 real life to reflection and compre- 

 hension. The consequence is, that 

 it attacks this actual form of exist- 

 ence, these morals, this faith, and 

 disturbs them ; and with this comes 

 the period of decay. The further 

 stage is, that thought tries to collect 

 itself. One may say, that where a 



5. 



Goethe's 



th 



people has come out of its concrete 

 I forms of life, where distinction and 

 separation of classes has set in, 

 where the nation approaches its 

 fall, where a rupture has taken 

 place between the inner desires and 

 the external reality, where the rul- 

 ing form of religion, &c. , &c., does 

 not satisfy, where the mind shows 

 indifference towards its living exist- 

 ence or lingers discontentedly in it, 

 where moral life is in dissolution 

 then only does one philosophise. 

 The soul takes refuge in the realms 

 of thought, and in opposition to the 

 real world it creates a world of ideas. 

 Philosophy is then the reparation of 

 the mischief which thought has be- 

 gun. Philosophy begins with the 

 decline of a real world : when she 

 appears with her abstractions, paint- 

 ing grey in grey, then the freshness 

 of youth and life is already gone ; 

 and her reconciliation is not one in 

 reality, but in an ideal world." 



