OF KNOWLEDGE. 395 



The same position has arisen with regard to that great 

 movement of thought which originated abroad in the 

 second half of the eighteenth century, of which Leibniz 

 and Herder were the first exponents, but which received 

 greater distinctness in the philosophical systems of 

 Schelling, Schleiermacher, and especially of Hegel. Both 

 in the history of nature and in that of mankind what 

 was originally aimed at — viz., an exposition of the origin 

 or genesis of things — has more and more had to content 

 itself with a record of genealogies, generations, and 

 transformations, i.e., with a theory of descent or ascent, 

 without being able to penetrate to first beginnings or 

 origins. In the theories of the inanimate world, notably 

 in the celebrated attempt of Kant and Laplace to 

 explain the development of the solar system, the whole 

 scheme reduces itself to a rearrangement of the constant 

 quantities of masses and energy in space. This seemed 

 feasible by taking into consideration the simple laws of 

 motion, the law of gravitation, and — in the sequel also — 

 the exchangeability of heat and mechanical motion. The 

 question as to the ground or sufficient reason for the 

 whole of this process which goes on in space and time 

 could be left out altogether as unnecessary for the 

 mechanical explanation of things. In the development 

 of organic life, however, and still more in that of the 

 mental life of individuals and of mankind, a new principle 

 appeared. This was the principle of growth, including 

 order, progress, and, at a later stage, what have been 

 appropriately termed spiritual values and their increase.^ 



^ The principle of growth, i.e., or less alone, but implies a certain 

 of an increase which cannot he arrangement or order, a Together 

 defined by the categories of more of thiugs accessible only to the 



