578 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



believe that the latter is the case. An idea which 

 germinates in an individual mind or is implanted by 

 education is not in itself capable of guiding him steadily 

 in his activity. If the whole environment is opposed to 

 it in its thought, or mainly moving in a different 

 direction, then a definite idea can, at the best, only 

 generate an isolated activity ; it will soon be extinguished 

 by the weight of what is foreign to it. Our activity is 

 determined not by that which passes transiently through 

 our mind, but by that which is abiding and repeated in 

 manifold connections. Herbart already recognised this 

 so far as education is concerned. . . . But it obtains not 

 only in young persons, but also with adults. . . . This 

 is recognised, e.g., by F. A. Lange when he attributes not 

 only our moral but likewise a great part of our intel- 

 lectual progress to the quiet but persistent action of 

 Christian ideas for the very reason that it has been 

 persistent." l And Barth shows that a similar view is 

 taken by Spencer. 



1 Loc. cit. (pp. 217-218). " Edu- 

 cation may, in the abstract, be 

 capable of introducing isolated and 

 new aspects into the mind of great 

 individuals, but will, in the con- 

 crete, only have an effect if these 

 ideals coincide with a strong and 

 growing current of public opinion. 

 . . . Thus education cannot im- 

 plant a content which is totally 

 foreign to the environment ; it will 

 only have success if it coincides 

 with a large existing or growing 

 movement. Through education 

 the great personality is rooted in 

 its surroundings. But how about 

 the age of maturity and of in- 

 dependent activity ? Is the hero, 

 as Bourdeau seems to think and 

 Spencer expressly says, an un- 



important accidental cause which 

 liberates an existing latent power, 

 removing a small insignificant 

 obstacle, or is he more, does he 

 augment the existing force? Can 

 he add something to it that nobody 

 in the great masses could have 

 given ? I would affirm the latter. 

 Nobody, not even Bourdeau and 

 Spencer, deny that the hero stands 

 a grade higher than his contem- 

 poraries. He sees more, feels more 

 profoundly, judges more correctly 

 than they. He can express better 

 what moves in all of them. From 

 this it follows that the hero exer- 

 cises an accelerating momentum, 

 that without him everything would 

 have progressed more slowly " (p. 

 218). And Dr Barth goes on to 



