INTRODUCTORY. 41 



body of guiding ideas which form the enduring bequest * 

 of nineteenth century speculation. 



In dealing with scientific Thought I had frequent 

 opportunity of pointing out how, in the course of the 

 century, science has become more and more international, 

 whereas in the beginning of the century the three prin- 

 cipal nations with which we are dealing took up different 

 and independent positions in their scientific work. A 32. 



National 



similar observation applies to philosophical Thought, and inter- 

 although in this case the change from national to inter- ^ c ^ C g n and 

 national work and co-operation has come much later and P hllos P h y- 

 is less pronounced. At the end of the century the 

 philosophy of the three countries preserves more of the 

 specific national characteristics than does their science, 

 and whilst in the beginning of our period we meet 

 with a lively though somewhat casual scientific inter- 

 course and exchange, the philosophy of the Continent, 

 notably of Germany, sprang up and developed without 

 producing for a long time any important influence on 

 France and England. In fact, we may say that the 

 powerful mutual influence of French, English, and Ger- 

 man philosophy produced in former centuries by the 

 teaching of Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, and Hume, had 

 given way to specific developments, chiefly in the Scot- 

 tish and the German schools. If we wish to characterise 

 broadly and without going into minute details these two 

 opposite developments which sprang out of the common 

 root of David Hume's scepticism, we may say that 

 Scottish philosophy cultivated the field of psychological 

 research, whereas German philosophy centred in meta- 

 physics : the consequence being that we owe to the 



