594 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



philosophy completely unified knowledge, is probably one 

 of the least disputed and most generally accepted ex- 

 pressions of that thinker, and this in the present day 

 when his own ways of arriving at this unification are 

 almost as generally rejected or forgotten. Now, if we 

 may say that the present age is marked by a desire to 

 arrive at unity of thought, we are forced at the same 



4. time to confess that it is equally marked by the failure 



Failure to . 



attain unity to attain or even to approach it. In this respect it 



of thought. 



presents a great contrast to the state of things which 

 prevailed a hundred years ago. 



Although the term introduced by Herbert Spencer 

 unification of knowledge and thought is now generally 

 adopted, it is only a new way of expressing what 

 former ages said in different terms. They spoke of and 

 produced systems of philosophy. The last generation 

 has produced no original system. On the other hand, 



5. we hear and read a great deal of the monistic tendency 



Monistic . ,. . . . , . 



tendency, of thought ; popular periodicals and treatises have been 

 published giving expression to this tendency. Thus we 

 may define the character of the highest philosophical 

 thought in the beginning of the nineteenth century by 

 saying that it was essentially systematic ; and again we 

 may say that the tendency but not the character of 

 philosophy at the end of the century is to a large extent 

 monistic. An adoption of new terms and the discarding 

 of old ones mark a change in philosophical thought 

 itself which it will be of interest to examine more 

 closely. 



Limiting ourselves for the moment to a consideration 

 of philosophical thought in Germany during the course 



