INTRODUCTORY. 59 



Mansel in this country. All the different lines of philo- 

 sophical thought converge, however, as I have already 

 said, towards the practical or social question which has 

 increasingly asserted itself in many forms as the great 

 philosophical problem of the age. 



This treatment will at the same time force upon us a 

 recognition how little has yet been done by scientific or 

 philosophical thinkers towards the solution of the many 

 burning questions which it involves, and how much, on 

 the other hand, we are still beholden to that vast army 

 of writers, thinkers, and practical workers who are 

 inspired by convictions and beliefs which have not yet 

 found any full and adequate scientific or philosophical 

 recognition. 



In this way the study of philosophical Thought will 

 lead us on to that large volume of unsystematic and 

 unmethodical Thought which I have variously defined 

 as subjective, individual, or religious, and which should 

 form the subject of the third and concluding section of 

 this History. 



III. 



Before entering upon a detailed account of the develop- 4s. 



. Character 



ment of the different philosophical ideas in the course of an <i im s 



of philo- 



the nineteenth century, it may be useful to my readers though* 1 , 

 if I try to give a general and comprehensive view of the 

 character and aims of philosophical Thought during that 

 period. In attempting this I do not find myself so 

 favourably situated as when I started on our survey 



