538 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



empirical psychology underwent a great change, notably 

 through the labours of James Ward and his followers. 

 They replaced the atomistic view imported from the 

 modern science of chemistry and represented, notably in 

 this country, through Mill and Bain, by the conception 

 of the inner life as a presentation-continuum, which is 

 divided up merely by the process of attention into sup- 

 posed definite sensations and perceptions. This con- 

 viction that the nature or reality of things, facts, and 

 phenomena, reveals itself in their " Together " and not in 

 their artificial isolation, finds its abstract expression in 

 Mr Bradley's conception of the comprehensiveness and 

 individuality of one Absolute ^ which alone represents 

 all and everything that is truly Eeal. There is no 

 doubt that this bias of his mind led Mr Bradley to 

 appreciate much that was done and said by the idealistic 

 school of German thinkers, though it is hardly true that 

 what prompted them in their speculations was an equally 

 clear insight into the different processes by which the 

 human mind acquires knowledge. This insight has 

 really been gained only by the slow processes of minute 

 analysis such as Kant attempted, which the most cele- 

 brated of his followers did more to abandon than to 

 perfect, but which owe the cultivation and refinement 

 they have reached in modern times, first to the 

 English school and secondly to those followers of Kant 

 who were temporarily forgotten and cast into the shade 

 by the glare which for a time emanated from the bolder 



^ It is, in fact, one of the most 

 biilliant examples of the growing 

 empha.sis whith is being laid upon 

 the esprit d' ensemble, the synoptic 



view, as distinguished from the 

 esprit de detail, the analytic view, 

 as already frequently referred to ; 

 see above, pp. 192, 193 n. 



