54 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



which have led to them and to gauge the amount 

 of actual and undisputed knowledge by which we are 

 guided, it will probably be found that the latter plays 

 only a very small part, and that beliefs and convictions 

 constitute the much larger portion of the considerations 

 which have led up to them. The task not only of 

 placing these convictions and beliefs in a clearer light, 

 but also of bringing them into some definite and intelli- 

 gible relation with the results of scientific thought, will 

 therefore always present itself; and to many thinking 

 minds it will be the most important function 'of philo- 

 sophical speculation. 



45. The endeavours to fulfil this task, to reconcile Know- 



Attempts at 

 reconciiia- ledge and Belief, constitute a large department of the 



d1t>eHef e philosophical thought of the century. They will claim 

 our attention in the later chapters of this section, which 

 will respectively deal with the time-honoured problems 

 of the Beautiful (^Esthetics), the Good (Ethics), and the 

 Spirit (Philosophy of Religion), further with the more 

 recent problem of Society. A last chapter will deal 

 exclusively with the several attempts towards a unifica- 

 tion and systematisation of thought in which the 

 nineteenth century has been particularly rich. 



Perhaps we shall have to state that those endeavours 

 towards a reconciliation of the scientific and religious 

 aspects have not been very successful, and shall thus 

 have to confirm a widespread opinion which looks upon 

 such attempts with disfavour. But even if this should 

 be the case, we shall be much impressed with the dis- 

 covery that all through the century, and from apparently 

 divergent points of view, the fact has been recognised 



