758 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



cause, and had ridiculed his Metaphysics. The idealistic 

 turn in Wundt's mind, when revealed, found as little 

 favour in that quarter ; but there is no doubt that his 

 development is strikingly representative of the change 

 of thought which took place, not only in Germany but 

 in other countries, during the nineteenth century, pre- 

 paratory to the new Idealism of the future. 



Another line of thought which helped in the same 



direction was just- that which to many unthinking 



persons would seem to point in the opposite direc- 



22. tion. This is what Huxley termed the " Agnosticism 



Agnosti- 

 cism- of the age." 



Though the term is novel, the truth it implies is old, 

 being represented in earlier nineteenth century thought 

 by the Kantian limitation imposed on human reason- 

 ing, and in this country by the position taken up by 

 James Mill. 



Mansel's ' Bampton Lectures ' and Herbert Spencer's 

 ' First Principles ' (Part I.) drove it home to the popular 

 mind. But probably the most impressive line of reason- 

 ing is to be found in the strictly logical analysis of the 

 scientific terms " Matter " and " Force." This was effected 

 in the domain of mathematical physics ; independently 

 by Thomson and Tait in England, Lotze and Wundt in 

 Germany, and Eenouvier in France. 



For philosophical purposes a simple definition at the 

 opening of KirchhofPs Lectures on " Mechanics " marks 

 an epoch, and was largely quoted by philosophical 

 naturalists in Germany, though Kirchhoff, as little as 

 Thomson and Tait, was aware that his definition marked 

 a turning-point not only in scientific but also in philo- 



