OF THE UNITY OF THOUGHT. 719 



human nature, so his scientific interest led him to a study, 

 and necessitated a comprehension, of the mental creations 

 belonging to those regions. But we do not find that 

 equal appreciation for the religious and emotional and 

 for the scientific and rational aspect of things which 

 is from the beginning characteristic of Lotze's position. 

 We are thus left in some uncertainty as to the value 

 and importance which Wundt attaches to any system 

 of religious beliefs or to a theological treatment of 

 them. 



With Lotze some fundamental conviction of a religious 

 nature formed the beginning and governing idea of the 

 whole of his speculation. With Wundt certain religious 

 conceptions, which are, as always, imported into his 

 speculation from the region of existing beliefs, make 

 their appearance at the end of his more systematic works. 

 They are there treated sympathetically ; but, coming, as so. 



it were, from outside and at the end of elaborate trains of 



conceptions. 



of reasoning, they appear more as an impartial tribute to 

 historically important phenomena of mental life than 

 as a fundamental conviction for which the whole of 

 the speculation was undertaken. 



The spiritual content which actuated the idealistic 

 and romantic development of German thought as a pro- 

 pelling force does not appear in the beginnings and in 

 the groundwork of Wundt's philosophy. As a purely 

 scientific thinker he was, however, in the course of his 

 mental development, bound to recognise and appreciate 

 it. He thus stands, so far as the religious problem is 

 concerned, half-way between what has been termed the 

 dualism of Lotze and the agnosticism of Spencer, at once 



