728 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



of its native country. On the other side, it is precisely 

 where it had met with such an easy solution, in France 

 itself, that this supreme problem is now most seriously 

 pondered over by leading thinkers. Of this we need not 

 take further notice in this connection, as it was fully 

 dealt with at the end of the foregoing chapter. 



I have had so frequently to notice the fragmentary 

 and inconclusive character of philosophic thought at the 

 end of our period that I cannot conclude without briefly 

 noticing the indications — particularly in British thought 

 — of the advent of a new spirit. The indications I refer 

 to point to a decided change in the position which the 

 philosophic mind is likely to take up in the near future, 

 with the object of again attaining to a greater unity 

 and harmony of thought, liberating itself from the fetters 

 of too much criticism and acquiring that self-confidence 

 which is indispensable to any constructive effort. This 

 was only faintly traceable or perhaps completely hidden 

 to the external view at the end of our period. Since 

 that time, however, the tendencies inherent in recent 

 thought have become clearer, and in so far as they bear 

 upon the subject of this chapter — the unification of 

 Knowledge and the unity of Thought — I will attempt 

 briefly to point them out. In doing so, I shall confine 

 myself to a few leading thinkers, dispensing with a 

 survey of the extensive literature in which similar 

 tendencies are manifest, and this for two reasons. 



First, because this literature is mainly interested in 

 special problems, employing highly technical terms, and 

 has in consequence not yet entered into the general body 

 of thought. Secondly, because my knowledge of this 



