INTRODUCTION. 



6. 



Two ways 

 in which 

 Thought 

 enters into 

 History. 



v. 



Definition 



ofThought 



impossible. 



the day, the year, at most of a generation, is known. Even 

 the highly complicated but stagnant life of China would 

 have a short historical record many thousands of years 

 taking up no more space than as many days of modern 

 European history: 



" Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay." 



Thus it is that Thought becomes in two ways a subject 

 of great interest and importance to the historian. Of 

 evei 7 change in nature or human life we can ask : What 

 has been its result in the world of thought ? What 

 gain or loss, what progress, has it worked in the minds 

 of men, of us the beholders ? Has it increased our know- 

 ledge, enriched our stock of ideas, deepened our insight, 

 broadened our views and sympathies in one word, has it 

 added to our interests ? has it made larger and fuller our 

 inner life ? 



And of every change in human affairs we can ask this 

 further question: What part has thought, the inner life, 

 played in this change ? These two questions mark the 

 task of the historian of Thought. 



I do not think it necessary or practicable at this stage 



J x 



to explain minutely the terms with which we have so 







far been dealing. Many a one might be tempted to ask 

 for a definition of Thought, or for a preciser statement of 

 the actual relation between Nature, Life, and Thought. 1 



1 In refusing to define what I 

 mean by Thought, I take up the 

 opposite position to that occupied 

 by Prof. Max Mitller in his latest 

 work, 'The Science of Thought,' 

 London, 1887, p. 1, where he says : 

 " I mean by Thought the act of 

 thinking, and by thinking I mean 



no more than combining. I do 

 not pretend that others have not 

 the right of using Thought in any 

 sense which they prefer, provided 

 only that they will clearly define 

 it." So far as definition is at all a 

 part of the work of the historian, 

 I maintain that it is the result and 



