OF NATURE. 585 



The earlier philosophies of the century recognised 

 this, and attempted in various ways to supply the want. 

 Considering the prominent part which abstract theories 

 had played at the time, both in the departments of the 

 exact and the historical sciences, and the great change 

 which had thus come over men's opinions, especially on 

 the Continent, it was natural that thought itself, or as 

 it was termed " the Idea," should be considered as a 

 definite factor and propelling force in the world, and 

 that the system in which this conception was carried 

 out, the Hegelian system, should attract much attention 

 and appreciation. It was owing to three distinct causes, 

 to which I have already had occasion to refer, that this 

 attempt was discredited, and that it lost favour in the 

 eyes of thinkers of various degrees and opinions. The 

 first of these causes was the difficulty of defining more 

 clearly the different stages through and in which 

 Thought or "the Idea" operated in nature and in his- 

 tory, and the arbitrariness which was thus introduced 

 into philosophical reasoning. The second cause was the 

 return to the purely critical position of Kant, according 

 to which thought plays only a formal and regulative 

 and not a creative part in mental progress. The third, 

 and probably the most important, cause, however, was 

 the fact that the ideals and aspirations which filled the 

 minds of people during and after the epoch of the 

 Eevolution, and which were then living forces, faded 

 gradually away before a great multitude of practical 

 and detailed tasks which had to be performed and of 

 obstacles which had to be overcome, and which brought 

 in the wake of them much doubt and discouragement. 



