610 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



14. presents its problem to the philosophic mind, had not 

 aspectof been reached at the end of the eighteenth century. 



this interest. 



Philosophical language shows this. There are three words 

 very familiar in the philosophical vocabulary of to-day 

 which we do not meet with in philosophic writings at 

 the end of the eighteenth century they are Pessimism, 

 Agnosticism, Indifferentism. The modern spirit char- 

 acterised by these terms was at the beginning 

 of the nineteenth century unknown in all the three 

 countries with which I am dealing. In Germany the 

 optimism of Leibniz' philosophy survived all the mis- 

 fortunes which befell the nation, and though the fright- 

 ful catastrophe of the earthquake of Lisbon had shaken 

 a shallow and superficial belief which pervaded a large 

 portion of popular literature and was ridiculed by 

 Voltaire, it had on more serious thinkers and writers 

 the effect of prompting them to search for the founda- 

 tions of their faith and the ground of their hopefulness 

 in deeper and higher regions of thought, not in a reliance 

 on mere external prosperity and success. 



Both in Germany and France confidence abounded 

 in the resources of the human mind, though this was 

 characteristically bestowed in Germany upon philoso- 

 phical speculation, resulting in idealism and transcen- 

 dentalism ; whereas in France it was bestowed upon 

 the resources of scientific thought, which was held to 

 have kindled the torchlight of Keason, dispelled the 

 darkness of superstition, and swept away political and 

 clerical tyranny and oppression. In this country an 

 era of remarkable industrial progress had begun ; political 

 and social philosophy had got a fresh start, and were 



