592 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



background and are almost forgotten. Among the 

 former we may single out the sociological problem as by 

 far the most important and generally attractive. Con- 

 nected with it, as of hardly less importance, are the 

 ethical and the religious questions. On the other hand, 

 as belonging to the less attractive philosophical problems, 

 we may name the philosophical problem of Nature and 

 the problem of the Beautiful. To many thinking 

 persons it may appear that there is no room for a 

 philosophy of nature outside of the scientific treatment 

 of the subject such as I have endeavoured to trace in 

 the first volumes of this History. Similarly aesthetics, 

 the philosophy of art and poetry, finds nowadays little 

 favour, and a widespread opinion prevails that the phil- 

 osophical treatment of these subjects has been of little, 

 if of any, use at all. In both instances, as regards the 

 philosophy of Nature as well as that of Art, what little 

 interest still survives seems to be more readily satisfied 

 by historical analysis, and this is either purely descrip- 

 tive or critical ; the standards of such criticism being fixed, 

 not by abstract reasoning, but by a careful study of the 

 creative work of the great masters of ancient and 

 modern times. 



There has been, secondly, as I have had repeated 

 occasion to remark, a prevailing tendency, in all but 

 the most recent thought of the last century, to deal 

 only with definite and well-marked subjects, be they 

 restricted regions of scientific and historical research 

 or particular questions of practical interest. And al- 

 though, as I have also had occasion to point out, a re- 

 action against this specialising and atomising tendency 



