OF THE SPIRIT. 261 



which have, as we have seen, dominated scientific thought 

 on the one side and philosophical thought on the other. 

 These tendencies are the mathematical spirit and the 

 critical spirit : there the exact methods of counting, 

 measuring, and calculating ; here the general canons of 

 logical, philological, and historical criticism. 



Nevertheless it is well to remark that this char- 2. 



More 



acteristic of universality, of cosmopolitan interest, has 

 become less conspicuous as we have progressed in our 

 review of the different problems which have engaged 

 philosophical as distinguished from scientific thought. 

 These problems have indeed been recognised everywhere 

 as of paramount importance, but the recognition even 

 of their existence has come about slowly and grad- 

 ually in the instance of some of them, and still more 

 slowly and gradually has the right manner of treating 

 them been recognised. Thus, for instance, the prob- 

 lems of the soul, of knowledge and of the good, have 

 all through the century occupied thinkers in all the 

 three countries to which our survey is mainly limited ; 

 whereas the problem of reality and the philosophical 

 problems of nature as a whole, and of the beautiful, 

 have only quite recently become everywhere objects of 

 systematic and methodical reflection. And further, if 

 we have to note that it is only within the last genera- 

 tion that some of these problems have been everywhere 

 admitted into philosophical treatises and systems, we are 

 still more interested to see how much more the methods 

 and points of view adopted by prominent thinkers 

 belonging to the three nations vary with regard to 

 some of the problems than they do with regard to others. 



