INTRODUCTORY. 27 



ally interesting to see how in the writings of one of the 

 latest representatives of the ideal school of philosophy in 

 this country, and one who has had a very marked influence, 

 we find a continual striving to find an expression for the 

 twofold aspect of reality and for the essence of the truly 

 real, similar to that which we meet with in the writings 

 of Plato. 1 



The patristic and scholastic philosophies are full of 21. 



r Mediaeval 



a recognition of the twofold aspect of reality ; but 

 they find a solution of the question as to the truly 

 real in the Christian doctrine of a higher life. Modern w 

 philosophy started in England in the teaching of 

 Bacon, and on the Continent in that of Descartes, 

 with a reaction against the neglect with which mediaeval 

 philosophy had treated the problems of this world. It 

 led, though in very different ways, to the culture of those 

 branches of knowledge which have to do with the outer 

 world i.e., with Nature in the largest sense of the term. 

 This v interest, as well as the fact that Plato's writings are 

 wanting in due appreciation of the importance of the 

 exact and natural sciences, with the sole exception of 

 mathematics, was probably the reason why, for a long 

 time, Plato's works remained little known to philosophi- 

 cal students. With a deeper recognition, however, that 



the question as to the truly real Was not Only of re- 

 modern, positive and evolutionary, Germany by Trendelenburg ('Ele- 



thought, M. Fouille'e in France, 

 started on his philosophic career 

 with a study of Plato. In each of 



menta Logices Aristot. ,' 1836, 

 'Logische Untersuchungen,' 1840), 

 in France by Bar thelemy- Saint 



the three countries the prominence i Hilaire (1844, &c. ), in England by 



given to Platonic studies through ! the recent Aristotelian studies at 



these translations was followed by | the University of Oxford, 



a reaction more or less associated | 1 See Mr F. H. Bradley 's ' Ap- 



with the study of Aristotle, in pearance and Reality,' 1st ed., 1893. 



