692 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



once proceeds to an exclusive discussion of the principles 

 of scientific knowledge, of which he proposes to give the 

 Rationale or ultimate unifying formula. Spencer has 

 accordingly no room for a philosophy of religion. 

 Philosophy is ultimately coincident with scientific know- 

 ledge, of which it is the complete unification. 



This introduction to the system of synthetic philo- 

 sophy reminds us of the Preface to the ' Microcosmus,' 

 where Lotze also deals with the problem, how to reconcile 

 the scientific with the emotional aspect. But there is a 

 62. marked difference from the outset. Though not ex- 



Spencerand i i n it- • i 



Lotze. pressly stated by Spencer, the religious or emotional 

 view of things does not include the ethical ; whereas in 

 Lotze's mind the latter, the idea of the Good, forms an 

 essential, in fact the supreme, conception of the be- 

 lieving soul. With Spencer the ethical interest falls 

 entirely into the region of science and philosophy, and 

 forms an important branch of scientific and philosophical 

 knowledge. With Lotze ethics is not a portion but the 

 transcendent foundation of metaphysics. 



Both Lotze's and Spencer's attempts to reconcile the 

 religious with the scientific view were put forward at a 

 time when the thinking public in their respective 

 countries was violently agitated by raging controversies : 

 Germany by the Materialistic, England by the Darwinian 

 controversy. It is, however, well to note that the 

 virulence of attack came, in Germany, from the side 

 of a popular philosophy which professed to be founded 

 on the latest results of the mechanical and biological 

 sciences, and was directed against traditional beliefs and 

 the ruling philosophy which, on its part, professed to 



