500 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



the attention of foremost thinkers in all the civilised 

 countries, and attempts were made to do more thor- 

 oughly and adequately what Hegel on the one side, 

 Comte on the other, had only adumbrated. The in- 

 terval was filled up by that large volume of research 

 which both schemes needed and presupposed, but which 

 neither could supply ; this is the work of the historical 

 school, or better, the historical schools, which started 

 everywhere, sometimes consciously but mostly uncon- 

 sciously, gathering and preparing the material for larger 

 generalisations and the solution of the greater problem. 

 The true historical spirit lived both in Hegel and 



The histori- 



HegeUnV 11 * n Comte, exhibiting in each a distinct but very dif- 

 ferent character. It would be quite incorrect to classify 

 historians by this distinction. There can, however, be 

 no doubt that two distinct tendencies exist among those 

 modern historians who desire to be more than mere 

 annalists, that these tendencies appear sometimes apart, 

 sometimes united, now clearly recognised, now only 

 implied, and that they are in the abstract represented 

 by Hegel and Comte. It will be of use if I try to 

 put in words somewhat more clearly what these two 

 tendencies are. 



The first, and, in time, the earlier philosophical con- 

 ception regarding the essence of human culture, civilisa- 

 tion and progress, is that this progress brings out and 

 so. unfolds an ideal content. Ideas are the motive power 



The idealist 



conception. i n the history of the race. According to Schelling and 

 Hegel not only human but also natural history, not only 

 the living and thinking portion of creation but in- 

 animate nature itself, is the playground of the Spirit 



