OF THE GOOD. 215 



poetical, artistic, and purely literary productiveness, by 

 which Hegel's abstractions had been suggested and 

 supported, had for the time being fallen into the back- 

 ground in this country as well as on the continent of 

 Europe. 



The fact that Herbert Spencer, as well as his fore- 

 runner John Stuart Mill, had been led from the study 

 of social problems to that of Metaphysics and Ethics, 

 was not only in harmony with the traditional spirit of 

 English philosophy, but it also reacted powerfully upon 

 moral philosophy itself. The latter has, as we have had 

 ample opportunity to observe, always been a favourite 

 and independent subject of speculation. At the same 

 time another influence made itself felt in English 55. 



. • Influence in 



thought : the influence 01 those very systems of German England of 

 idealism which sprang from Kant, but which had ap- 

 parently been abandoned by German thinkers. Several 

 works written in an incisive spirit appeared about 

 the time when Herbert Spencer was publishing the 

 foundations of his system. Among these, two gave 

 a great impetus to philosophical thought — namely, 

 Mansel's Bampton Lectures on ' The Limits of Eeligious 

 Thought' (1858), and Hutchison Stirling's 'The Secret 

 of Hegel' (1865). The former renewed attention to 

 the philosophy of Kant which had so far affected 

 English thought mainly in the interpretation of Sir 

 William Hamilton ; the latter inaugurated an appre- 

 ciative and long - continued study of Hegel's writings 

 at a time when they were wellnigh forgotten in 

 Germany. 



It was recognised by some of the foremost thinkers 



