INTRODUCTORY. 63 



fear or favour, with the sole object of arriving at that 

 natural knowledge which was proclaimed by Francis 

 Bacon, for which the great Societies and Academies of 

 Europe were founded, and which probably attained its 

 most brilliant expression in the work of the German Uni- 

 versities during the first two-thirds of the century. It 

 cannot, however, be held that this serene temper of the 

 scientific mind has been left undisturbed within the last 

 forty years. Hardly escaped from the trammels of 

 theology or the control of metaphysics, a new danger 

 seems to threaten pure science. This danger comes from 

 the side of the practical usefulness of scientific dis- 

 coveries, and from the many problems which the Arts 

 and Industries place before the scientific mind in an 

 ever - increasing degree. There seems to be as much 

 danger nowadays of science becoming the prey of 

 commercial, industrial, and financial interests, as there 

 was formerly that it should lack independence through 

 being regulated by theology and metaphysics. 



Philosophy, as distinguished from Science, does not 

 profess to start on its career without a distinct interest 

 in the results which it will attain to. The ultimate 

 answers to the highest questions of life and society, of 

 duty and happiness, are not indifferent to the philosophical 

 thinker, and if we occasionally meet with some secluded 

 sage who professes to have attained to that unbiassed 

 attitude which characterises pure thought, we shall have 

 to admit that his speculation suffered from the want of 

 contact with things real ; nor is it an infrequent occur- 

 rence to find that his followers have speedily undertaken 

 to show the practical bearing of his refined and abstract 



