GROWTH AND DIFFUSION OF CRITICAL SPIRIT. 113 



philosophical, nor Lessing, in the wider field of criticism, 

 was really radical enough. In their critical attempts 

 they did not go to the root of the matter. Their 

 successors have tried to improve upon them and to 

 penetrate deeper into the recesses of all mental life and 

 activity. With what results we shall see in the sequel. 

 The reasons why both Lessing and Kant halted, as it 21. 



Obstruc- 



were, half-way in their critical discussions were pro- tions to it 

 bably twofold. To begin with, they had an overwhelming 

 material to deal with, all the inherited systems of 

 ancient and modern philosophy and all the products of 

 ancient and modern literature and learning, all the 

 creations of ancient and modern art and poetry. In 

 the middle of the eighteenth century, when Lessing 

 and Kant started on their literary enterprises, the 

 means of acquiring a tolerably comprehensive view of 

 the great field of the mental labours of the past were 

 exceedingly meagre. It was the time when the French 

 Encyclopaedists started the first attempt to arrange 

 methodically the whole body of accumulated knowledge 

 and learning ; in fact, it was the beginning of what I 

 have termed before the age of the encyclopaedic treat- 

 ment of knowledge and learning which lasted for a 

 century. 1 This attempt to arrange methodically and 

 to make inventory of knowledge went parallel with the 

 critical movement. During that period we find con- 

 tinually that the greatest critics had to interrupt their 

 critical work in order to gather the necessary informa- 

 tion without which criticism was impossible or premature. 

 We find this notably in the work of Lessing. And 



1 See vol. i. p. 34. 

 VOL. III. H 



