OF THE SOUL. 



263 



of eclecticism, but which in England attained to a 

 marked influence only after the middle of the century. 

 This influence of the transcendental movement may be 

 defined by saying that it pushed into the foreground 

 those problems which in the older philosophy had been 

 dealt with under the title of rational psychology or 

 pneumatology. In contradistinction to empirical psy- 

 chology, which aims at a simple description of the 

 phenomena of the inner life, rational psychology aimed 

 at answering those questions which form the ground- 

 work of a reasoned creed (Weltanschauung). Speaking 

 in a general way, it may be said that in Germany the 

 formation of a philosophical creed was the all-absorbing 

 interest up till the middle of the century, after the 

 failure of which the more empirical treatment received 

 long - delayed attention ; that in England empirical 

 studies which had been roaming about at large and 

 without any definite systematic organisation, accumu- 

 lating a large amount of valuable material, awakened, 

 greatly under the influence of the transcendental move- 

 ment, to the necessity of attacking the great questions 

 of the soul, its nature, its destiny, and its place in the 

 Divine Order, in fact, to the necessity of forming a 

 rational or reasoned creed. Among those who recog- 

 nised that this task could no longer be postponed, 

 stand out prominently Herbert Spencer, John Stuart 

 Mill in his later writings, and George Henry Lewes. 1 

 The eclectic school in France, with Victor Cousin at 



1 G. H. Lewes' (1817-78) prin- 

 cipal works referring to this matter 

 are ' Problems of Life and Mind ' 

 (1st series), 'The Foundations of a 



Creed' (2 vols., 1874 and 1875) 

 and ' The Study of Psychology ; 

 its Object, Scope, and Method ' 

 (1879). 



