168 SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



It is a useful and interesting task to trace intellectual 

 developments and habits to their external causes. The 

 centralisation of the powers and resources of a whole 

 nation into one capital, as was the case in Eome and in 

 Paris, may explain the brilliancy of their literatures ; the 

 more scattered and diffused culture of Greece and of 

 Germany is likewise reflected in their many schools of 

 thought and learning ; the insular position of England has 

 impressed its advantages and disadvantages upon her 

 history, and has influenced her mental life. These influ- 

 ences have frequently been pointed out and examined. 

 The historian of thought has another and more difficult 

 task to perform. Habits of thought and intellectual 

 qualities never become the property of a large number of 

 persons unless they assume a definite form ; through this 

 they become a marketable article which can be communi- 

 cated and transmitted, and in which those also can par- 

 ticipate from whom the deeper motives and higher aims 

 remain hidden. Every school has its watchword, in which 

 its leading thought, its ideal, is embodied. The widely 

 scattered and yet closely connected community of intel- 

 lectual workers rej)resented by the German university 

 system, which covers with its network of universities and 

 high schools the German-speaking countries of Europe, 

 has during the period of its greatest influence developed 

 its own special ideal, and it has expressed this in a special 

 9. word namely, the word Wissenschaft. Neither the French 



The ideal 



of ivissen- nor the English application of the word science corre- 

 sponds to the use or gives the meaning of the word 

 Wissenschaft. This meaning cannot be defined by any 



^ Compare the uotes at the beginning of the last chapter, p. 89, &c. 



