OF THE SOUL. 



233 



to find the essence of the inner life, by searching for 

 it deeper and deeper, he separated himself more and 

 more from the system of his master. In many ways 

 his position and his career differed from that of other 

 prominent thinkers of his age ; for he was neither a 

 politician nor a teacher of philosophy. His practical 

 occupation consisted in administrative work, holding 

 official positions during the Revolution, the Empire, and 

 the Restoration. In passing, we may note that he thus 

 belonged to that organisation which preserved all through 

 the rapidly succeeding catastrophes and changes of the 

 age that continuity and stability which did so much for 

 the French nation : I refer to the organisation of ad- 

 ministrative and legislative work. He has been called 

 the greatest French psychologist of the nineteenth 

 century. His influence was to a great extent personal, 

 his works are fragmentary, and the most important and 

 interesting among them were not published till long after 

 his death ; nevertheless he may be considered as a centre 

 of philosophical thought, and as such he has recently 

 received increased appreciation. 1 He marks the trans- 



1 French psychology during the 

 first half of the nineteenth century 

 had at the time little direct in- 

 fluence on European thought as a 

 whole. Accordingly we do not read 

 much about it either in English or 

 in German contemporary philoso- 

 phical literature, and it is only 

 since the more recent development 

 of French philosophy has attracted 

 attention and appreciation outside 

 of France that the larger histories 

 of philosophy have begun to assign 

 to it an important place in the 

 History of European Thought. 

 Among these Prof. Hoffding's 



History, written from an inter- 

 national point of view, gives the 

 fullest and most satisfactory ac- 

 count, though he himself, in a later 

 work ('Moderne Philosophen,' 

 1905, p. 67), declares that he has 

 not been able to give it that ex- 

 haustive study which it deserves. 

 M. Ferraz has written its history 

 in three volumes, dealing separately 

 with three currents of thought, 

 called respectively Socialism, Tra- 

 ditionalism, and Spiritualism. The 

 first includes Naturalism and Posi- 

 tivism ; the second, Ultramontanism; 

 and the third, Liberalism (1877, 



. 



