OF THE SPIRIT. 401 



as to the ultimate authority to which we appeal in 

 matters of knowledge and faith. 



It will now be generally admitted that through many 

 influences, some of which were clearly pointed out by de 

 Lamennais, a spirit of indifference under various names, 

 such as Agnosticism, Irreligion, Immoralism, or Pro- 

 babilism has found its way into the thoughtful literature 

 of Western Europe. And, further, we are struck by 

 the fact that prominent thinkers in this country, such 

 as Mr Balfour, and before him James Martineau, have 

 made the question of the seat of authority or the court 

 of appeal in matters of knowledge and belief the subject 

 of special study. 



It is a matter of historical interest that a similar 

 problem presented itself, in the early part of the 

 century, from an entirely different point of view and in 

 different surroundings, to de Lamennais, — the problem of 

 certitude in matters of belief. The fact that a tendency 

 to indifference was slowly growing out of the Pro- 

 testant principle of Toleration did not then strike 

 either German or British thinkers ; and this is easily 

 explained if we realise that in Germany, at the time 

 when the ' Essay on Indifference ' appeared, there existed 

 just the opposite, a spirit of hope and genuine trust 

 in the promises of idealistic speculation which was 

 not to supersede, but to put the verities of Christian 

 religion upon a securer intellectual foundation; further, 

 that in England a quite different but not less hopeful 

 spirit had become diffused through poetry, literature, and 

 art since the beginning of the century, and that this 



VOL. IV. 2 c 



