752 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



and to the expulsion of the current conception of a vital 

 force; but he did not adopt the shallow views of the 

 materialists, nor those of later pessimists, nor was he 

 overawed by Darwinism. His position is defined by his 

 version of a truth stated already by Leibniz that 

 mechanism is an all - pervading but a subordinate 

 principle of Reality : thus, neither the ' Force and 

 Matter ' of Biichner, nor the ' Will ' of Schopenhauer, 

 nor the ' Unconscious ' of Hartmann, nor ' Natural 

 Selection,' led him astray. 



It may appear strange to my readers that I give such a 

 prominent place to a thinker who is so little popularly 

 known ; indeed, the philosophy which he represents re- 

 frains on principle from indulging in easy watchwords 

 or marketable phrases ; it is more an attitude of mind 

 and a habit of thought which he cultivates ; the study 

 of his writings may appropriately serve as an introduc- 

 tion to philosophy preparatory to the formation of a com- 

 prehensive reasoned creed. And apart from the episode 

 of the idealistic systems which intervened between Kant 

 and Lotze, this is really the position of philosophical 

 thought initiated by Locke and Hume in this country 

 and by Leibniz abroad, and clearly denned by Kant. 

 Instead of starting with some self-evident principle, 

 some definition of method or some highest conception of 

 the essence of Eeality, of the truly Eeal, as Descartes and 

 Spinoza did, and as the idealists in Germany attempted 

 to do, the philosophy I am now referring to is contem- 

 15. plative and critical rather than constructive. It tries to 

 attitude understand the great bodies of Thought and Knowledge 

 thought. which are already in existence, aims at grasping them as 



