INTRODUCTORY. 81 



centration in large cities has brought about has grad- 

 ually become in general literature, as well as in phil- 

 osophical, ethical, and religious writings, the great topic 

 of the day. 



The impossibility which not only philosophical theo- 6 4. 

 rists, but also religious workers, have experienced in decline of 



philosophic 



dealing with this great problem, which we may, for the interest. 

 moment, call the salvation of society, has in this 

 country brought about a widespread feeling of dismay, 

 and deprived not only philosophical doctrines of their 

 interest, but also religious beliefs of that hold which 

 they once had on the minds of men. In Germany the 

 older forms of religious belief had in the eighteenth cen- 

 tury been largely superseded by rationalism ; this again 

 for a time looked as if it would yield to the deepening 

 and spiritualising influence of the idealistic philosophy. 

 But when the latter appeared to many to be uncertain 

 in its results and delusive in its promises, a reaction 

 set in which produced for a long time an indifferentism, 

 not only towards religious, but also towards philosophical 

 teaching. Add to this that the growing industrialism 

 of the age, the commercial spirit, and the increasing 

 wealth of the upper and middle classes, had found a 

 convenient and comfortable popular philosophy in the 

 shallow tenets of materialism. Thus we can say that 

 philosophical thought of the highest order i.e., the 

 intellectual search for the great Eealities which underlie 

 and sustain everything, the quest for the truly Keal has 

 suffered bankruptcy, in Germany mostly through theoret- 

 ical, in England through practical, causes. Nevertheless, 

 it must be added that the very recognition of all these 



VOL. III. F 



