GROWTH AND DIFFUSION OF CRITICAL SPIRIT. 177 



was a general unsettlement of religious and political 

 beliefs, which was followed by two distinct tendencies 

 in German thought. The first and more popular 

 tendency manifested itself among those who felt the 

 need of some practical philosophy which should take 

 the place of those doctrines that had, through the 

 conflict within the schools themselves or through the 

 attacks of criticism, lost their stability and the hold 

 which they once possessed over the thinking mind. It 

 showed itself in the readiness with which they threw 

 themselves into new systems, in the hope that these 

 would afford some relief in the general perplexities with 

 which they were surrounded. Of the various new 

 philosophies put forth, two stand out as having 

 apparently captured and retained the attention of large 

 classes of thinking persons. Neither of them grew up 

 within academic circles, in which they have never found 

 a real home. They are : the materialistic philosophy, 

 the gospel of which is Ludwig Buchner's ' Kraft und 

 StofT (1855), and the philosophy of Arthur Schopen- 

 hauer, which, though of much earlier date, did not 

 become generally appreciated till after the death of its 

 author in 1860. 



From this, the effect upon the more serious thinkers, 

 who in the German universities presided over and led 

 the higher education of the nation, differed widely. To 

 them it seemed necessary to discard as premature all 

 attempts to solve by an omnipotent formula, after the 

 manner of Hegel, the great fundamental problems which 

 presented themselves. They therefore discarded all 

 hurried generalisations and advocated a sober examina- 



VOL. III. M 



