INTRODUCTORY. 



33 



are attempting to record. They deal, not so much with 

 persons and events, as with the gradual development of 

 constitutions, the growth of nationalities and societies, 

 in fact, with the life and interests of the masses. 



The history of thought seems similarly to lend itself 

 very readily to such treatment. It is easy to fix upon 

 one or several leading ideas or movements of thought, 

 and to trace their slow growth and gradual diffusion 

 and influence. Important historical works, comprising 

 sometimes many volumes, have been written or planned 

 from this point of view. It is seldom, however, that 

 we do not rise from the perusal of such works with the 

 feeling that they have only taken notice of one side, and 

 that there are other sides which must also be taken 

 into account if we wish to arrive at a fair judgment 

 or a comprehensive view. 1 



Thus, although it is the object of this history to dwell 



25. 



Application 

 to the 

 history'of 

 thought. 



1 The prominent examples of 

 this manner of treating the History 

 of Thought are Comte's 'Philo- 

 sophic Positive,' Thos. Buckle's 

 ' History of Civilisation, ' and 

 Hegel's ' Philosophy of History. ' 

 With these I shall be largely occu- 

 pied in future chapters. Of smaller 

 Works we have Guizot's Lectures on 

 ' History of Civilisation in Europe ' 

 and 'History of Civilisation in 

 France' (1828); Lecky's 'History 

 of the Rise and Influence of 

 Rationalism in Europe ' (1865), 

 2 vols. German literature is par- 

 ticularly rich in monographs on 

 special ideas or movements of 

 thought, such as Lange's 'History 

 of Materialism,' already quoted, 

 Lasswitz' ' Geschichte der Atom- 

 istik,' 2 vols. (1890); Tholuck's 

 ' Vorgeschichte des Rationalismus ' 

 (1853-62); ' Geschichte des Ration - 



VOL. III. 



alismus' (1865); A. Ritschl's 'Ge- 

 schichte des Pietismus' (1880-86) ; 

 A. Drews' ' History of German 

 Speculation since Kant,' containing 

 mainly a history of the idea of 

 Personality. Of course, by far the 

 most important idea or cluster of 

 ideas in modern times has its 

 special development and history in 

 the vast theological literature deal- 

 ing with Christianity in its two 

 great manifestations, ' Christian 

 Church ' and ' Christian Doctrine. ' 

 As this rests on a unique historical 

 foundation, it will not be specially 

 dealt with in the present section of 

 this history. It belongs to the 

 religious thought of the century. 

 Only where it comes into immedi- 

 ate contact with philosophical 

 doctrines, as it certainly has done 

 very frequently, shall I have occa- 

 sion to refer to it. 



