60 



INTRODUCTION. 



4. 

 Is history 

 of thought 

 history of 



term can be applied to our age, no one name can be 

 found which carries with it the recognition of all the 

 many interests which surrovmd us. 



It has been suggested by some that the history of 

 thought is equivalent to the history of philosophy ; that 

 philosophy? ^j-^g different philosophical systems and theories exhibit 

 in the abstract the course which ideas have taken in an 

 age.-^ A history of thought in the nineteenth century 

 vi^ould thus mean a history of nineteenth century philo- 

 sophy. There have indeed been plenty of philosophies 

 and systems during our period, but in spite of their 

 I great number and variety ranging from the extreme 

 idealism of Fichte to the equally extreme materialism 

 of Biichner ^ we feel that they do not cover the whole 

 area of thought. The period in our century which in 

 England was most barren in philosophy, the first forty 

 years, produced an entirely new literature and a novel 

 conception of art, both containing new sources of mental 

 life, though they have hardly yet found expression in any 

 philosophical system. Equally barren in speculation was 

 France during the Eestoration ; yet there, too, was a 



latter part of his work deals with 

 the reaction against Aufkldrung 

 and " Rationalism " as it began in 

 England, and was represented on 

 the Continent by Rousseau and 

 the earlier ideals of the French 

 Revolution. Through Rousseau and 

 the Revolution the growing in- 

 fluence of the new spirit of English 

 literature was overpowered and lost 

 for the Continent. And, as we have 

 to regret in Villemain his neglect 

 of the new life of Germany, so we 

 have to deplore that Hettuer fol- 

 lowed the developments of Rational- 

 ism and Aufklarung only in the 



form they assumed in Germany, 

 neglecting to notice the contem- 

 porary growth of the new life in 

 English Literature and Art, to 

 which, in fact, no German historian 

 has as yet done justice. 



1 See especially Hegel's Lectures 

 on the History of Philosophy in his 

 collected works, vol. xiii. p. 68 sqq. 

 (Complete edition, Berlin, 1832.) 



" The principal publications of 

 this school are Vogt, ' Physiologische 

 Briefe,' 1845-47 ; Moleschott, ' Der 

 Kreislauf des Lebens,' 1852 ; Biich- 

 ner, 'Kraft und Stoff,' 1855. 



