OF KEALITY. 509 



certainly the most important problem from the point of 

 view of practical human interests. In pronouncing it to 

 be logically and metaphysically insoluble, he has admitted 

 the necessity of seeking for a solution in a different 

 direction, and in doing so he has, more than is generally 

 acknowledged, helped to support views which have 

 sprung up independently from many sides and in many 

 regions of modern thought. But these speculations will 

 be more fittingly dealt with in separate chapters, which 

 will treat of the important labours that have been be- 

 stowed during the nineteenth century on the ethical 

 and religious problems. 



It is significant that, in the same degree as the meta- 48. 



Ethical 



physical problem the problem of Eeality has been problems. 

 pushed into the background through many influences, 

 ethical problems, which for a long time had been 

 neglected, are increasingly attracting attention abroad; 

 For it has been clearly recognised that if it is possible 

 and expedient, for a time at least, to ignore the question, 

 What is the truly Eeal ? and to content oneself with 

 that Eeality which is merely apparent but which lies 

 around us, through space and time, in overwhelming 

 fulness and complexity ; it is on the other side not 

 possible, nor expedient, to neglect the solution of the 

 problem of Conduct. We may, and can, for a moment 

 refuse to consider the question : What is ? but we can- 

 not refuse to answer the question : What ought to be ? 

 and not infrequently we find that resignation with re- 

 gard to the first question is accompanied by the greater 

 emphasis which urges the second. The more difficult 

 it is to arrive at a definite religious or metaphysical 



