36 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



to the doctrines of pure science. The ethics and re- 

 ligion of science which the latter half of the century 

 has variously elaborated meet with even less recog- 

 nition by practical teachers than did the " philosophy 

 of Nature " of Schelling and of Oken a hundred years 

 ago on the part of the leaders of Science. Science and 

 the philosophy of Life, knowledge and wisdom, still 

 live mostly far apart, or are found united only in rare 

 and isolated instances. Looking, then, from a broad and 

 general point of view at the two great branches of 

 methodical thought of the past century, we may say 

 that there existed two main problems. For the phil- 

 osopher who started with the highest interests before 

 his mind, the question arose, how was he to find a way 

 into the broad expanse of natural phenomena ? What 

 was the principle by which these phenomena could be 

 grasped and studied ? And for the student of Nature, 

 who started from the observation of nature herself in 

 her endless variety, the question presented itself: how 

 could he ascend to a conception and understanding of 

 the highest principles which govern and regulate the 

 mental life of man and mankind ? The first of these 

 two problems has in a measure been solved by the 

 methods and principles of exact science, as I have 

 explained them in the former volumes ; they are the 

 scientific, exact, or mathematical methods. The second 

 has occupied the greatest thinkers in the course of the 

 century, but a generally accepted answer has not been 

 arrived at. 



We have seen that the methods of the exact sciences 

 by which the exploration of nature in the largest sense 



