OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 49 



or content, and the object of philosophy is to show this, 

 and by following its development through the various 

 regions of natural and mental life, of history, art, and 

 culture, to reach a fuller definition of this underlying 

 idea, and of its recurrent forms, phases, and stages of 

 development. 



It may at once be remarked that for the carrying 

 out of such a scheme the psychological study of the 

 human mind suggested two definite and distinct prin- 

 ciples, which we can define as the intellectual and the 

 practical. It is characteristic also of that age that the 

 practical side which in the philosophy of Kant and 

 Fichte had attained to supremacy was pushed into the 

 background in favour of the intellectual or contempla- 

 tive side. That age desired, above all, to understand 

 reality better. The great changes which had taken 

 place, first in the region of higher culture and still more 

 in politics and society, had taken the world by surprise. 

 The progress of science, in the larger sense of the word, 

 embracing the exact and the critical methods, also 

 suggested that the human mind had come into possession 

 of more powerful instruments of research. It seemed 

 natural, especially for the leaders of the higher educa- 

 tional movement, and the teachers of the coming 

 generation, that they should first endeavour clearly to 

 understand what had taken place, and by doing so, 

 qualify themselves and their disciples to take a leading 

 and rational part in the government of the world and the 

 shaping of events. Thus it came about that the equally 32. 



1 . . . » , . , Neglect of 



legitimate accentuation of the active process represented active 



_ process. 



by Fichte's philosophy was for the time superseded, and 



VOL. IV. D 



