OF SOCIETY. 



497 



had a very clear perception that there were existing 

 in this country, inter alia, two distinct needs which 

 would have to be supplied before a great reorganisation 

 could be attempted or hoped for. 



The study of Comte's premature constructive efforts 

 probably helped to convince him that there was needed, 

 first, an effort towards the general education and en- 

 lightenment of the mass of the People ; and secondly, 

 a greater harmony among philosophers as to the main 

 articles of a reasoned creed enabling them to become 

 the intellectual leaders of society in the manner that 

 Saint-Simon and Comte proposed and Mill essentially 

 approved of. For Mill was one of those thinkers in 

 this country who thought an adherence or a return 

 to the traditionally accepted beliefs impossible. 



The fact that these two needs had been felt on the 

 Continent, and notably in Germany, long before they 

 presented themselves clearly to the mind of Mill in this 

 country, was probably one of the various causes which 

 created here an interest in the intellectual life of 

 Germany ; directing the glance of many prominent 



persons of the most ordinary intel- 

 lect to something of the dignity of 

 thinking beings. Of such we have 

 had an example in the condition of 

 Europe during the times immedi- 

 ately following the Reformation ; 

 another, though limited to the 

 Continent and to a more cultivated 

 class, in the speculative movement 

 of the latter half of the eighteenth 

 century ; and a third, of still briefer 

 duration, in the intellectual fer- 

 mentation of Germany during the 

 Goethean and Fichtean period. 

 These periods differed widely in 

 the particular opinions which they 

 developed ; but were alike in this, 



VOL. IV. 



that during all three the yoke of 

 authority was broken. In each, 

 an old mental despotism had been 

 thrown off, and no new one had yet 

 taken its place. The impulse given 

 at these three periods has made 

 Europe what it now is. Every 

 single improvement which has taken 

 place either in the human mind or 

 in institutions, may be traced dis- 

 tinctly to one or other of them. 

 Appearances have for some time 

 indicated that all three impulses 

 are wellnigh spent ; and we can 

 expect no fresh start until we 

 again assert our mental freedom." 

 (Mill ' On Liberty,' pp. 62-63.) 



2 I 



