INTRODUCTION. 



perfect models in the art of writing history, and the 

 memoirs of many modern statesmen are more lastingly 

 valuable than the more elaborate and connected narra- 

 tives of remote and secluded scholars. 

 is. But if the contemporary record of facts will always 



Value of 



contempor- have a peculiar value, however incomplete it may be, 



ary records, 



Pa > ctsa f nd st ^ more must this be the case with the contemporary 



ught ' record of thought ; especially if thought means the whole 



of the inner life of an age, not merely that portion which 



in the form of defined thought has been incorporated in 



the written literature of the age. For a large portion of 



this hidden life is known only to those who have taken 



i*. part in it. The vague yearnings of thousands who never 



Mystery of J J 



succee d either in satisfying or expressing them, the hun- 

 dreds of failures which never become known, the number- 

 less desires which live only in the hearts of men or are 

 painted only in their living features, the uncounted 

 strivings after solutions of practical problems dictated 

 by ambition or by want, the many hours spent by 

 labourers of science in unsuccessful attempts to solve 

 the riddles of nature, all these hidden and forgotten 

 efforts form indeed the bulk of a nation's thought, of 

 which only a small fraction comes to the surface, or shows 

 itself in the literature, science, poetry, art, and prac- 

 15. tical achievements of the age. Equally important, though 

 Thought not equally prominent, this large body of forgotten 

 for genius, thought has nevertheless been that which made the 

 measure full, which heaped the fuel ready for the 

 match to kindle ; it constitutes the great propelling force 

 which, stored up, awaits the time and aid of individual 

 talent or genius to set it free. Philosophers tell us of 



