294 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



This abstract position which Hegel's philosophy took 

 up in dealing with the religious problem was further 

 emphasised by two characteristics of his system. That 

 system started, indeed, with the idea of showing how 

 everything was the working of the Divine Spirit, which 

 unfolds itself in a great variety of forms in nature, 

 mind, and history. Prima facie, therefore, it supported 

 an eminently spiritual or religious view of things, and 

 there is no doubt that it attracted for a time many 

 young and ardent minds, who were tired of the formality 

 and prose of the traditional teaching of rationalists and 

 of orthodox alike. It seemed to be the veritable solu- 

 tion of the problem of the spirit. It must also have 

 been considered as a great advantage that this spiritual- 

 ising and deepening process of thought was carried out 

 by a definite teachable method, the dialectical method. 

 This first impression was strengthened through the 

 personal influence which Hegel's Lectures had upon 

 his hearers. They witnessed the wrestlings of a 

 powerful intellect with the highest problems which 

 the human mind can set to itself; they were shown 

 the solution — or at least the road to the solution 

 — of the supreme difficulties which had in that age 

 again begun to trouble and harass thinking and believ- 

 ing persons ; they met with a promise that the real 

 truth of the Christian dispensation, the aspirations of 

 the Reformation and the Eevolution, should be intel- 

 ligibly explained, confirmed, and harmonised. To this 

 must be added the fascination created by the 

 mystical element which pervaded all Hegel's writings 

 and the prophetic tone of his oral teaching. When, 



