OF THE UNIT? OF THOUGHT. 605 



his attempts to unify Kant's thought more exclusively 

 to the purely theoretical expositions contained in the 

 first ' Critique.' And this purely theoretical or, as we 

 may term it, essentially scientific and logical interest 

 supervened again in a much more comprehensive spirit 

 in Hegel's system, which was elaborated after its author 

 had fully assimilated the valuable suggestions contained 

 in Fichte's and Schelling's less systematic writings. The 

 valuable suggestions may be summed up in two dis- 

 tinct notions. These have, in the course of the nine- 

 teenth century, asserted themselves again and again 

 in various forms, and in speculative treatises which 

 have, in some cases, had little or no connection with 

 Kant's philosophy. They are the practical or active 

 principle in the human mind and the artistic or 

 poetical conception of the world and life. The former 

 was, more emphatically than by Kant himself, urged 

 by Fichte in his doctrine of the primacy of the 

 human will ; the second forms the main characteristic 

 of Schelling's earlier writings. 



It was not until the first brilliant attempts to utilise 

 these suggestions for the purpose of building up con- 

 nected systems of thought had been confidently made 

 and received by the philosophical public, and subse- 

 quently found wanting and repudiated, that the second 

 departure referred to above, which we may term the 

 Neo-Kantian, came gradually into favour. This change 

 of philosophical interest took place about the middle of 

 the century, and was assisted by a variety of causes, to 

 which I have had frequent occasion to refer. The result 



