68 INTRODUCTION. 



and very frequently outside of any school, points to novel 

 modes of mental conception, to a fund of ideas yet un- 

 developed or only partially developed into clear thought. 

 The whole of this productiveness indicates a vast amount 

 of mental work which, though not yet absorbed by science 

 or philosophy, belongs nevertheless, according to our 

 original conception, to the world of thought. The mean- 

 ing of it may be enigmatical, and the clear expression 

 which it will some day produce in philosophical and 

 scientific reasoning may be far distant and unintelligible 

 is. to us now. Still there it is, this great body of undefined 



Unmethodi- _ . 



cai thought, thought, this volume of diffused light, the focus and 

 centre of which is still hidden from us. We feel that in 

 discussing the thought of the century we cannot pass it 

 by or neglect it. 



It is difficult to find any one term under which we 

 could comprise this great body of unmethodical, scattered, 

 and fragmentary thought, any one word, similar to 

 science and philosophy, in which we could sum up and 

 characterise its general meaning and tendency. So far 

 we have only stated what it is not, what to a large extent 

 it perhaps never will be viz., methodical. And yet we 

 feel that it contains that kind and portion of thought 

 which touches our deepest interests, our most intimate 

 concerns, our noblest aspirations. Science becomes more 

 and more a mere calculation, une question d'analyse, an 

 occupation for the laboratory, the workshop, the manu- 

 factory, and the market ; philosophy savours at its best 

 too much of the school and lecture-room, runs too much 

 into systems and categories, it fatigues us with definitions 



