91 



CHAPTER II. 



ON THE GROWTH AND DIFFUSION OF THE CRITICAL SPIRIT. 



I. 



NOTHING probably strikes the impartial student of the i. 

 progress of scientific and of philosophical thought more the position 



of science 



than the changing and opposite attitudes which the and philo- 

 sophy. 



exponents of these two forms of thought have assumed 

 in the course of the nineteenth century. This change 

 has been more and more evident as the century has 

 progressed. To a great extent we may even say that 

 the attitudes have been reversed. The difference I refer 

 to may be expressed concisely by saying : Science has 

 more and more acquired the character of defmiteness 

 and the attitude of assurance ; Philosophy, on the other 

 hand, has become more and more uncertain and timid. 



In the beginning of the century, both in Germany 

 and England, science and scientific thought played only 

 a secondary part in literature and teaching. France 

 was the only country in which it had early acquired 

 that position and commanded that esteem which it now 

 enjoys everywhere. 1 In Germany philosophy led the 

 way, and even in this country, where it could not boast 



1 See vol. i. p. 105 sqq. of this History. 



