GROWTH AND, DIFFUSION OF CRITICAL SPIRIT. 189 



baffled and perplexed to find a way out of the labyrinth 

 of criticism, still resorts to the remedy which Hume so 

 graphically describes in the closing pages of the first 

 book of his ' Treatise of Human Nature.' 



" Where am I, or what ? From what causes do I 

 derive my existence, and to what condition shall I 

 return ? Whose favour shall I court, and whose anger 

 must I dread ? What beings surround me ? and on 

 whom have I any influence, or who have any influence 

 on me ? I am confounded with all these questions, and 

 begin to fancy myself in the most deplorable condition 

 imaginable, environed with the deepest darkness, and 

 utterly deprived of the use of every member and faculty. 

 Most fortunately it happens that, since reason is incap- 

 able of dispelling these clouds, nature herself suffices to 

 that purpose, and cures me of this philosophical melan- 

 choly and delirium, either by relaxing this bent of mind 

 or by some avocation and lively impression of my senses 

 which obliterate all these chimeras. I dine, I play a 

 game of backgammon, I converse and am merry with my 

 friends ; and when, after three or four hours' amusement, 

 I would return to these speculations, they appear so cold 

 and strained and ridiculous that I cannot find in my 

 heart to enter into them any farther." 



To the Englishman the way out of metaphysics is still 

 common-sense, the overwhelming evidence of the things 

 around us. One of the latest and greatest of English 

 thinkers, Henry Sidgwick, has given expression to this 

 feature of the English mind in his recurrence to the 

 philosophy of Thomas Eeid. If we turn to France we 

 find a preponderant inclination to revert to those 



