330 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



the mathematical sciences and the mechanical explana- 

 tion of things, the other to a mystical and spiritual 

 view, so also the philosophy of Leibniz pointed in 

 two directions. It suggested the attempt to rationalise 

 the whole of our knowledge, be it natural or spiritual; 

 but it also pointed to the unexhausted wealth of 

 inner life out of which a new world of ideas might 

 26. spring up at the right moment. Thus Leibniz uncon- 

 directions sciously heralded, as it were, the two great developments 

 Leibniz. which took place in German thought after the middle of 

 the eighteenth century ; the earlier rationalising move- 

 ment during the age of the " Aufklarung " and the later 

 spiritual deepening and consequent ideal elevation during 

 the age of classical literature and art. We have seen in 

 an earlier chapter how the former movement of thought 

 led to more and more methodical treatment in all the 

 different regions of knowledge; how criticism, in the 

 larger sense of the word, developed out of it and be- 

 came the great instrument of academic education in all 

 the branches of learning which were not covered by 

 the mathematical and physical sciences. But we saw 

 at the same time how this critical movement derived 

 its higher meaning and importance from the existence, in 

 the minds of its foremost representatives, of an ideal 

 background, which the critical processes hoped, in the 

 end, to reach and bring into daylight. This ideal 

 background had become a reality through the creative 

 genius during the classical and romantic periods of 

 German literature and art. 



