416 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



of Lotze, and which has become similarly popular. He 

 sees in philosophy the complete unification of Knowledge, 

 as distinct from the different sciences which afford only 

 a partial unification of Knowledge. But he has paid the 

 inevitable tribute to the trend of modern thought by 

 introducing into the foundation of his system that 

 inherent dualism which, as I said before, seems every- 

 where to confront us. Continuing the traditions of 

 earlier English philosophy, and influenced as much by 

 Hamilton as by Mill, he draws a sharp distinction 

 between the Knowable and the " Unknowable." The 

 former is really only concerned with mechanical connec- 

 tions, although the language in which these connections 

 are expressed by Spencer retains many of the older 

 attributes by which a duplex meaning is conveyed. But 

 the deeper desire of arriving at an explanation and not 

 merely at a description of phenomena is recognised and 

 satisfied in Spencer's philosophy by acknowledging the 

 existence of an unknown power which is at once the 

 origin and the sustaining ground of everything. 

 70. Through this doctrine of the Unknowable, Herbert 



The 'Un- 

 knowable.' Spencer has become the father of that School of Thought- 



to which Huxley has given the pertinent name of 

 " Agnosticism." 



Somewhat later than Lotze in Germany and Spencer 

 in England, philosophical thought in France came 

 prominently forward with contributions to the solution 

 of the problem of knowledge. The most important 

 among these contributions are to be found in the 

 writings of Charles Renouvier, a contemporary of Lotze, 

 though his influence belongs to a much later date. In 



