118 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



to the philosophical portion of this History but to that 

 which will deal with individual and poetical thought. 

 It may here suffice to say that this deeper movement 

 consisted in a still greater widening of the meaning of 

 Criticism : it meant not only literary, philosophical, 

 theological, and aesthetic criticism, it meant Criticism 

 of Eeligion, Morality, and Life. It is represented in 

 England by Coleridge, Carlyle, and Matthew Arnold, in 

 France by Renouvier. 



The influence of Lessing and that of Kant did not 

 run in the same channels. That of the former was 

 most marked in the domain of general literature and 

 of historical studies. In these two directions the 

 influence of Kant was scarcely felt, or only indirectly 

 asserted itself. But in the dominion of philosophy 

 and theology the influence of both thinkers was 

 combined, although their direction was by no means 

 identical. So far as philosophy is concerned, the 

 purely critical movement which emanated from Kant, 

 and which down to recent times has prevented the due 

 appreciation of the positive side of his philosophy, was 

 to a great extent opposed by the peculiar turn which 

 philosophical thought took largely under the influence of 

 Lessing. For it was one of Lessing's great merits that 

 he drew attention to the forgotten and neglected works 

 of Spinoza. In fact, it has been maintained by F. H. 

 Jacobi and by several of Lessing's biographers that 

 Lessing was a Spinozist. At any rate, whether this was 

 so or not, the discussion over the point which sprang 

 up through Jacobi's publication of a conversation 

 which he had with Lessing shortly before the death of 



