OF REALITY. 525 



was sufficient to dispel all his doubts. In fact, the 

 general feeling of security and the belief in progress 

 were not shaken. A spiritual solution in harmony with 

 Christian beliefs had been offered by Bishop Berkeley; 

 and Hume was refuted, through Eeid and the Scottish 

 school, by an appeal to common-sense — i.e., by a return 

 to the Order of the day and the Powers that be. Such 

 an Order and such Powers existed in this country, but 

 they did not exist abroad. Hence the problem of 

 Existence, the question as to the Divine order of things, 

 was emphasised by that section of thinkers on the 

 Continent who regarded the Ptevolution as the beginning 

 of a new era, who inherited its faith and hope in a 

 better future and considered themselves the bearers of 

 a new message and a new Eevelation. Another section 

 preached the doctrine of Eeaction and heralded the era 

 of the Restoration. The former section was mostly 

 represented by the Idealistic and the earlier Eomantic 

 schools in Germany, the latter by the philosophy of the 

 Eestoration in France and by the later phases of 

 Eomanticism in Germany. We know how, with the 

 representatives of both sections, the practical problems 

 of social organisation, of law and morality, stood in the 

 foreground ; in Germany also the great problem of 

 popular and higher Education. We also know how the 

 critical spirit on the one side, and the scientific on the 

 other, slowly but surely prepared the downfall of the 

 Idealistic movement in Germany, and, with it, of the 

 peculiar solution of the problem of Existence and 

 Eeality which it had attempted. 



In fact, up to recent times, and with few exceptions. 



