576 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



purely academic view has long been rendered untenable 

 or antiquated. The deepest philosophy, the largest 

 erudition, the most exact science are not enough. The 

 causes of this change are, in the main, twofold. 

 Notably in Germany the ideal view which ran through 

 the whole of the great philosophical systems has lost its 

 original ground ; it had, after all, its anchorage in the 

 evangelical conception of Christian Truth which was 

 handed down from the Reformation. The attempt to 

 rationalise this has destroyed its very essence. Those who 

 nowadays still believe in the ideal treatment of history 

 try to give their idealism a non- religious colouring. 



As M. Tarde in France did not accept the theological 

 ground and centre of Liebniz's monadology, in the same 

 way we find that what formed the centre of Ranke's 

 historical creed the living Spirit of God and the world 

 of living spirits which He has created is not a guiding 

 idea any more for those who still profess to belong to his 

 school. Discarding the mystical and irrational element 

 which characterises Ranke's great work as the product 

 of a period of transition, the younger generation attempt 

 to give to their ideas a much more definite and tangible 

 character. Thus we have, e.g., the idea of nationality, 

 the idea of race, the idea of centralisation, or perhaps, 

 more recently, the imperialistic idea. 



In the place of the great hold which religious truth 

 in a more or less philosophical interpretation had 

 during the earlier part of the nineteenth century on the 

 leading minds of Germany, another power has come in 

 and claims increasing recognition. This is the popular 

 spirit, the social and economic interests of the large 



