OF THE UNITY OF THOUGHT. 617 



nature as well as in, what Leibniz termed, the " world 

 of Grace," seemed to be lost or hidden away in an 

 esoteric philosophy which was not taught in the 

 schools. Accordingly the time came when two distinct 

 tasks presented themselves to thinkers the one in the 

 direction of renewing with more method and circum- 

 spection Leibniz' attempt to reconcile knowledge and 

 faith, the other to deepen and enliven both through a 

 more sympathetic study of things pertaining to the 

 natural and external world on the one side, to the 

 individual and spiritual world on the other. 



The first of these great tasks rose clearly before the 

 mind of Kant, whose earlier writings were occupied with 

 various problems suggested in Leibniz' philosophy ; whose 

 academic teaching followed much in the lines of the 

 Wolffian school ; but who, largely through the study of 

 English thinkers, notably of Hume, succeeded in finding 

 a new point of departure. 



The second great task was attacked from various sides 

 by thinkers who had freed themselves from the philosophy 

 of the schools, who were not tied down to systematic 

 teaching, and who found in instinctive and intuitive 

 knowledge, gained through an immediate contact with 

 its object, a new source of inspiration. 



The new life which was infused into general literature, 

 into science and philosophy alike, came thus from two 

 independent sources, of which the one was eminently, 

 but not exclusively, critical, of which the other was 

 constructive and, in the sequel, became dogmatic. 



These two springs of new life, the critical and the 

 creative, stand out in full contrast in the two greatest 



