6 INTHODUCTION. 



In this sense of the word we have in the following 

 treatise to deal with the History of Thought : not, how- 

 ever, with the history of thought in general, but with 

 10. that of a defined period, with that of the present age 



Thought of r ' f o 



the present g^^^^ ^^le age immediately preceding it, the age, in fact, 

 to which the writer and his readers belong, of which 

 they have a personal knowledge and recollection more or 

 less wide and intimate. It is the latter circumstance 

 which has made me select this special portion of the 

 history of thought ; for it is that portion of which, it 

 seems to me, I and my contemporaries should if we go 

 about it in the right way know most. As every person 

 is his own best biographer, so it seems to me every age 

 is, in a certain sense, its own best historian. 

 11. We know that this has been frequently denied so far 



Contempor- 

 ary history, as external events (that which many persons call history 



to what ex- ^ "^ ^ "^ 



and vaiu-^^*^ ^ar excellence) are concerned. Contemporary writers do 

 ^^^^' not, it is stated, get beyond mere records of events, 



records at once one-sided, incomplete, and confusing. It 

 is indeed necessary to have the records in great number 

 and variety : because the true and real record can only 

 be given by him who combines all these many records 

 into one, who avoids the errors arising from special 

 points of view, from narrowness of outlook, from indi- 

 vidual ignorance, blindness, or prejudice. Still, in spite 

 of such defects, the contemporary records will always 

 remain the most valuable sources for the future historian 

 who may succeed in sifting their various testimonies, 

 combining and utilising them to produce a fuller and 

 more consistent picture of the bygone age. But while 

 his work may be only temporarily valuable, theirs is 



