OF SOCIETY. 587 



mystery, at least a sacred personal possession into 

 which it is not right or even useful to pry. 



The consequence of the different position which the 

 religious interest occupies in the three countries is 

 reflected in their philosophical literature. The neces- 

 sity of rescuing the higher ethical, as also the spiritual, 

 view of life from the danger of being overlaid by the 

 industrial and selfish interests of the age is most felt by 

 foremost thinkers in France. 1 In Germany we have 

 two movements in recent philosophy, which we may 

 term the theological and the purely intellectual or 

 rationalistic. There is no country where religious 

 philosophy is so much cultivated as in Germany. In 

 England mental and moral philosophy have always 

 existed as subjects of inquiry and of academic teach- 

 ing. They stood formerly in distinct connection with 

 traditional beliefs ; more recently, in the writings of 

 Mill, Spencer, and the Positivists, they have sought to 

 acquire that independent position and treatment which 

 they have, for a long time, enjoyed on the Continent. 



But English and German thought have also come 

 under the influence of another foreign movement. 

 This originated in the United States of America, and 

 finds its expression in several periodicals of which the 

 'Open Court' (1887) and the 'International Journal 

 of Ethics' (1890) are the most important. Already in 



1 See inter alia an important 

 publication entitled ' La Crise 

 Morale des Temps Nouveaux,' by 

 Paul Bureau (1907). The author 

 inclines towards Roman Catholicism, 

 but the Preface, by M. Alfred 

 Croiset, to whom the work is dedi- 

 cated, shows that a difference of 



opinion as to the solution of the 

 religious problem does not prevent 

 these two thinkers from jointly 

 emphasising the importance for 

 society of the moral and social 

 crisis through which the modern 

 world is passing. 



