678 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



assign an important position to von Hartmann's specula- 

 tion. The phenomenal success of his first great work 

 was largely owing to expectations raised through the 

 title. The educated mind of the time looked forward to 

 the exposition of a philosophy built upon the inductive 

 and especially the biological sciences, but which, at the 

 same time, should admit the existence of an underlying 

 spiritual, even a mystical, principle. As such it seemed 

 destined to combat the materialistic doctrine which was 

 not only unpoetical but was also felt to be growing 

 stale. These expectations were hardly fulfilled, and 

 the reading public did not pay the same, or even due, 

 attention to the later works in which von Hartmann 

 has gained an important place in the history of philo- 

 sophical criticism. In fact, only after a lapse of many 

 years was deserved appreciation bestowed upon these 

 critical writings, in which a vast amount of historical 

 knowledge is combined with great critical acumen and 

 lucid exposition. 



Von Hartmann was a solitary and secluded thinker, 

 but the fundamental principle which he proclaimed was 

 too negative, being neither original nor comprehensive 

 enough to permit of expansion into a self-consistent edifice 

 of thought ; he stands outside of the general course of 

 philosophical speculation, in opposition to nearly every 

 other great thinker, an interesting curiosity rather than 

 an incisive and propelling force in the progress of 

 thought. He stands there as the last firm believer in 

 the mission of metaphysics, in the older idealistic and 

 romantic sense of the word. As such I have dealt 

 with him here somewhat in advance of his chronological 



