THE ASTRONOMICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 311 



thought in our century : their position towards this 

 thought is indeed instructive, but it is frequently unsafe. 



Philosophical reasoning either precedes or succeeds 7. 

 the labours of the scientific thinker ; it rarely accom- and science. 

 panics them. In the history of earlier times, during the 

 first centuries of the modern period, we find some of the 

 foremost philosophers, such as Descartes, Bacon, Leibniz, 

 occupied in attempting to lay down the correct lines on 

 which science should proceed, or to find general ideas 

 which could serve as supreme principles of scientific 

 truth. It is a rare thing to find that they have succeeded 

 in either of these attempts. In more modern times, 

 ever since Locke started on a different track, it has been, 

 especially in this country, the endeavour of philosophers 

 to abstract out of the existing volumes of scientific re- 

 search the leading ideas which have proved so helpful, 

 and to explain their origin, their bearing, and their value. 

 Perhaps they have been more successful than their pre- 

 decessors : it has, however, frequently happened to them, 

 that whilst they were elaborately analysing some process 

 of reasoning, or some prevailing scientific principle, 

 science has meanwhile adopted some entirely different 

 line, and presented an entirely unexpected development. 



In this respect they resemble that school of historical 

 politicians which in the middle of our century in Ger- 

 many * attempted to read the signs of the times, and to 



1 This is the school represented by 

 the historians Dahlmann and Ger- 

 vinus. A good account, with a 

 somewhat severe criticism of the 

 aims of this school, will be found 

 in Karl Hillebrand, ' Zeiten, Volker 

 und Menschen,' vol. ii. pp. 205-290. 

 ' ' The State and Literature had 



growii in Germany alongside of 

 each other without coming into 

 contact, the former active, reticent, 

 modest, the latter declaiming, 

 noisy, pretentious. It appeared as 

 if all our life had become intellect- 

 ual ; Gerviuus himself thought so 

 and blamed us. In reality it was 



