OF KNOWLEDGE. 311 



and we have in Locke's Essay the repeated assertion 

 that natural knowledge gives only probability and not 

 certainty. 



We are thus indebted to Locke and his successors not 

 for any attempt towards a complete and systematic 

 theory of knowledge, but rather for leading philosophi- 

 cal thought into separate and definite channels of re- 

 search ; dealing as it were with the different regions of 

 knowledge which were being cultivated or opened out 

 in modern times, thus laying the foundation for separate 

 philosophical inquiries. In each of these separate regions 

 of knowledge, such as Psychology, which deals with the 

 phenomena of the inner life ; Logic, which deals with 

 the principles of scientific knowledge ; Ethics, which 

 deals with the principles of action ; Economics, which 

 deals with the principles of industry and commerce ; 

 ^Esthetics, which deals with the principles of taste, 

 English Philosophy can boast of having produced 

 treatises of standard merit, distinguished by careful 

 and penetrating analysis. But what was wanting from i 6 . 

 the point of view occupied by Continental thinkers from systematic 



unity. 



Descartes to Hegel was systematic unity based upon 

 completeness and intrepid trust in the conclusiveness 

 of purely logical argument. If we except Bishop 

 Berkeley's Idealism, no attempt had been made in this 

 country before the middle of the nineteenth century to 

 construct a comprehensive and consistent philosophical 

 creed, which should afford definite answers to all the 

 more important problems of theory and practice. It 

 can be easily shown that the prominent feature of 

 British philosophical thought up to quite recent times 



