304 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



14. 



Reaction in 



British 



thought. 



of knowledge, like that of Laplace, was to be found in 

 mathematical astronomy.^ 



As a great change came over the ideals of human 

 knowledge about the middle of the nineteenth century 

 in Germany, so likewise a reaction set in in this country 

 though somewhat later. It is frequently suggested that 

 this was brought about largely through the tardy influ- 

 ence of German literature and philosophy.^ But though 

 this has no doubt been considerable, especially since 



^ I have in the first volume of 

 this history (p. 237) given extracts 

 from a pamphlet entitled ' On 

 the Alleged Decline of Science in 

 England' (1831) which bear upon 

 this subject. It was published 

 anonymously, but is known to 

 have been written by Dr Moll of 

 Utrecht. Inter alia he refers to 

 the exclusive culture of the higher 

 analysis promoted by the great 

 teachers at the Ecole Normale and 

 to the discouragement of classical 

 studies. See also page 149 as to 

 the fate and the temporary suspen- 

 sion of the ' Academie des Sciences 

 morales et politiques.' The idea 

 that the philosophical sciences 

 should be entirely founded upon 

 the physical and natural sciences 

 was not original, though it was 

 fundamental in Comte's early posi- 

 tivism. "We find it everywhere 

 at that time, with Vicq-d'Azyr, 

 who treats psychology as a branch 

 of physiology ; with Destutt de 

 Tracy, who considers Ideology as 

 a simple chapter of Zoology ; with 

 Volney, who gives to his ' Catechism 

 of Natural Law ' the sub-title ' Prin- 

 ciples of Morals ' ; it is the last word 

 of the sensationalism of the age, 

 as it is of that of to-day. To these 

 contested views Saint-Simon joins 

 others which are extremely para- 

 doxical and which border on the ri- 

 diculous. . . . God appears to him 



(he does not say whether in a dream 

 or otherwise) in order to declare to 

 him that Rome, the Pope, and the 

 Cardinals have ceased to receive 

 His inspirations, and that He 

 will in future communicate them 

 to a sacred college composed of 

 twenty - one sages elected by en- 

 tire humanity, and presided over 

 by a mathematician. . . . The 

 great Council will have, above all, 

 the mission to study gravitation, 

 the only law — if we may believe 

 our author, who in this agrees with 

 Charles Fourier — to which the 

 universe is subjected, &c. , &c." 

 (Ferraz, ' Histoire de la Philo- 

 sophic en France.' — 'Socialisme, 

 &c.,' 3rd ed., 18S2, p. 8 sqq.) 



^ " The German mind, awakened 

 into a priori speculation by Leibuiz, 

 continued in it on the new lines of 

 Kant, and from Kant to Hegel 

 tended steadily towards the specu- 

 lative construction and systematic 

 unity of absolute all - explaining 

 Idealism. This philosophy, intro- 

 duced into Britain at first by 

 Coleridge and by the criticisms of 

 Hamilton, has . . . gradually trans- 

 formed our insular manner of think- 

 ing, and inverted, for the time, 

 Locke's ' plain, historical ' matter- 

 of-fact procedure" (Fraser in 

 'Locke,' "Blackwood's Philosophical 

 Classics," p. 286). 



