OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 117 



ferring to the activity and presence of mind everywhere 

 and in everything, as it is natural for the evolutionist 

 philosopher at the end of the century to refer to the 

 presence of life everywhere and in everything. Both 

 schools of thought assume, tacitly and unconsciously, that 

 the terms they use awaken in the minds of their readers 

 familiar conceptions, the meaning of which is readily 

 admitted. They both appeal to an immediate knowledge 

 which the mind of every educated person is supposed to 

 possess intuitively in a more or less distinct and living 

 form. It is perhaps needless to remark that neither of 

 the two terms has appeared, as time has gone on, quite 

 satisfactory to the critical spirit which, before permitting 

 the use of either of them, would require a definition ; also, 

 that as soon as this desire makes itself generally felt any 

 philosophy based upon such conceptions will appear un- 

 satisfactory, demanding further investigation : this may, 

 in its turn, either confirm it and place it on a surer 

 foundation or prove the whole superstructure to have 

 been illusory and, at best, of only temporary value. 



Towards the end of the nineteenth century we have ee. 



Reluctance 



had occasion to notice a growmg reluctance to deal with to deal with 

 metaphysical questions. This reluctance has shown itself pi^ysics. 

 also in the treatment of sesthetical problems. The purely 

 philosophical aspect of the problem of the Beautiful has 

 given way to the psychological interest or to purely 

 literary criticism. We have also seen that in psychology 

 as well as in criticism important changes of view have 

 taken place. Psychology has developed in the direction 

 of psycho-physics, and literary and artistic criticism has 

 assumed an historical bias. The former change is the 



