308 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



in the character of reality as the data of experience and 

 observation in the outer world. Both these realities 

 were considered by common-sense philosophy to furnish 

 material for reflection and interpretation. In the 

 opinion of most thinkers from the time of Bacon 

 down to the beginning of the nineteenth century, 

 these two separate sources of knowledge and reflection 

 stood sufficiently apart to admit of being independently 

 recognised and studied. This view was probably most 

 clearly represented in the writings of Locke, who, more 

 than any other among those thinkers who acquired a 

 widespread reputation and influence, may be looked 

 upon as typical of the ruling philosophical thought in 

 this country from the time of Bacon till well on into 

 the nineteenth century. His attitude to knowledge 

 gained by observation through the senses as well as to 

 that based upon religious beliefs has been characterised 

 as a kind of via media. But it did not emanate from 

 the desire, and still less from an attempt, to reconcile 

 the two realms of thought, as was the case with his 

 famous contemporary on the Continent, Leibniz ; it rather 

 sprang from a dislike of dogmatism, be that dogmatism 

 theological or scientific : for, according to Locke, neither 

 the theologian nor the naturalist could attain to such 

 certainty as would allow either side to disregard the 

 evidence furnished by the other. "Thus for 130 years 

 after its publication the ' Essay ' of Locke gave to philo- 

 sophy in this country its groundwork and its method. 

 The Anglo-Saxon mind cautiously leans to that side of 

 human life which is instinctive and determined by its 

 custom, overlooked, as outside philosophy, altogether by 



