560 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



of novel occupations which followed in the wake of the 

 inventions of steam, chemistry, and electricity. 



The modern age has had to deal not only with the 

 unsolved problems of former ages and of the old world 

 which it regards in a new light, but also with new 

 problems which have arisen in the new and artificial 

 world of commerce, manufacture, and industry. This 

 new and artificial world is the creation of science, 

 mainly of mathematical or exact science, and through 

 this its origin in the human mind itself it also contains 

 and increasingly produces such problems as can be 

 most easily and successfully handled by those very 

 methods of exact research of which it is the out- 

 come. 

 IB. Now it is to be regretted that the rationale of this 



A premature 



rationale in revolution of ideas and pursuits was not given bv those 



materialism. 



gifted minds with whom it originated, but that it was 

 rather left to intellects of a lower order, who were 

 not creators but onlookers merely, to frame a popular 

 philosophy, a reasoned creed which should stand in 

 agreement with the new conceptions and be intelligible 

 to thoughtful persons among the general public. With 

 very few exceptions, creative intellects have not the 

 leisure nor the taste to reflect upon the ulterior con- 

 sequences of their theories. Bent upon creation, and 

 frequently unable to control the stream of ideas which 

 rush in upon them from some mysterious depth, they 

 are as it were only instruments in the hands of some 

 unknown power, intent upon incessantly moving forward 

 and impatient of delay. Not infrequently, indeed, we 

 find them in later years, when the rush of youthful 



