68 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



Lotze himself had done, or as fanciful and half 

 poetic creations. Here Fechner is the most original 

 example. The lack of originality, combined with an 

 increased accuracy, shows itself in the great predilection 

 for historical studies, in the revival of older theories 

 and systems, in the love of the past. In a similar 

 manner this retrospective interest has shown itself 

 wherever Art and Literature have left behind them an 

 age of original production and the sources of inspiration 

 seem for the time exhausted. Such phases in the his- 

 tory of thought or of artistic creation are characterised 

 by minuteness of research, by formal excellence, by 

 critical acumen, by elaboration of detail. They mark 

 the twilight of the waning day which again, after 

 the longer or shorter absence of the full light, may 

 lead to the dawn of a new day. It is not the object 

 of the historian to indulge in prophecies or fanciful 

 anticipations ; yet it is his duty to note whether his 

 age shows any sign of revival and of the return of the 

 creative faculty. 



To this latter question I shall revert later on ; in the 

 meantime it is useful to note that the last generation, 

 devoid as it has been of any distinct creative effort in 

 philosophical thought, has been characterised by two 

 generalised movements of thought, and this in all the 

 three countries alike. The first of these tendencies has 

 already been noted at the beginning of this Introduc- 

 54. tion; we may call it the reversion to common -sense. 



Keversion . 



to common- On this I need not at present dwell at any greater 



sense. 



length, as the special forms which this general tendency 

 has assumed in the different literatures and schools will 



