50 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



that it was not till much later in the century that it 

 found philosophical expression first by Schopenhauer, 

 and later on by more recent thinkers who variously term 

 themselves voluntarists, pragmatists, or humanists. 



Hegel carried out the programme he gave in his first 

 work in great fulness, and with a wealth of illustration 

 drawn mainly from the regions of the history of civilisa- 

 tion and culture. In several courses of lectures on the 

 Philosophy of Eeligion, of Society, and of Art, he applied 

 the abstract formulae of Logic to the comprehension of 

 the growth and life of all the higher and more important 

 human interests. After Aristotle in ancient and Kant 

 in modern times, he was the third prominent leader 

 of thought who not only established firm principles but 

 condescended also to elaborate and apply them in the 

 many regions of culture and learning, attacking with 

 them the many outstanding problems. His mind was 

 as tenacious of its ultimate convictions as it was encyclo- 

 paedic in the large view and the grasp which it possessed 

 of detailed knowledge. Thus his system seemed to 

 many to be the consummation of a great intellectual 

 development, a resting-place from which the achieve- 

 ments of modern research and learning could be profitably 

 surveyed. Each department of culture, all the higher 

 human interests were clearly mapped out, put into their 

 right order and places. His disciples could choose for 

 themselves a definite field of work and enter upon it 

 equipped with lofty ideas and a practical plan of proceed- 

 ing. Among the separate courses of lectures which he 

 delivered, in which he carried out his great programme, 

 those on Esthetics must have been among the most 



