OF REALITY. 529 



conspicuous for its historical erudition. Jowett revived 

 the study of Plato, and T. H. Green pointed to the great 

 ideas contained in Hegel's philosophy, in which he rightly 

 admired the underlying scheme more than its actual 

 elaboration. About the same time a solitary thinker, 

 Hutchison Stirling of Edinburgh, created a deep curiosity, 

 as much through the title as through the oracular 

 wording of his ' Secret of Hegel.' The immediate result 

 upon English philosophy was a series of works which, 

 in an independent spirit and with much originality, 

 attempted to fathom and expound the deeper meaning 

 and drift of the writings of Kant and Hegel. To these 

 was added a renewed study of Spinoza, whose influence 

 on German philosophy was so conspicuous, but whose 

 works had almost fallen into oblivion in this country. 

 The study of Hegel was followed in Oxford by that of 

 Lotze. It must, however, here be remarked that the 

 knowledge in this country of the constructive systems 

 abroad has up to quite recent times remained incomplete ; 

 it did not, for instance, include any intimate acquaintance 

 with the systems of Fichte, Schelling, and Schleier- 

 macher, nor with those of Herbart and Leibniz, nor 

 did it take any notice of the underlying influences of 

 the Eomantic movement. 



Before what we may call the Oxford school arrived 

 at an independent expression of its aspirations, the 

 Eealistic movement in Philosophy had already advanced 

 to an original conception, not only of the problem of 

 Knowledge, but also of that of Eeality. That the 

 abandonment of the conventional and common - sense 

 solutions of these problems entailed upon philosophers 



VOL. III. 2 L 



