Mat 23, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



797 



volume now before us will lend new stimulus 

 to the sale of its predecessors. A fourth and 

 concluding volume is yet to follow. But we 

 have evidence, and to spare, that, once more, 

 an Englishman of business affairs has arisen 

 to occupy a place alongside George Grote and 

 many others (Darwin not least) who, without 

 academic support or connections, have accom- 

 plished so much for the advancement of Brit- 

 ish science, and the preservation of its distinc- 

 tive temperament. As it stands, " A History 

 of European Thought in the Nineteenth Cen- 

 tury " is a magnificent performance. To the 

 patient thoroughness of the German, Dr. Merz 

 has added the clearness and, in the best mean- 

 ing, the common-sense of his own countrymen. 

 He carries his load without the aid of any 

 partisan theory, he has no pet ideas to exploit. 

 And although, the very nature of the case pre- 

 venting, I am not yet convinced that his dis- 

 cussion of philosophical thought is as success- 

 ful as his presentation of scientific achieve- 

 ment, nevertheless it is plain that Part II. 

 bids fair to be as invaluable as Part I. 



The volume contains six chapters : Introduc- 

 tory; On the Growth and Diffusion of the 

 Critical Spirit; Of the Soul; Of Knowledge; 

 Of Eeality; and Of Nature. The plan de- 

 mands some elucidation. Dr. Merz points out 

 that " In the beginning of the century, both 

 in Germany and England, science and scien- 

 tific thought played only a secondary part in 

 literature and teaching. France was the only 

 country in which it had early acquired that 

 position and commanded that esteem which it 

 now enjoys everywhere" (p. 91). The nine- 

 teenth century brought about a change which 

 " amounts in many cases to a complete rever- 

 sal of the estimation in which the mathe- 

 matical and natural sciences, on the one hand, 

 the historical and philosophical, on the other, 

 are held. The earlier part of this history has 

 furnished the answer to the first half of the 

 problem: I there endeavored to show that the 

 success and assurance of scientific thought has 

 grown with the growth and diffusion of the 

 scientific spirit, which has been more clearly 

 defined as the exact or mathematical spirit. 

 . . . The second part of this history will have 



to answer the other half of the above question, 

 namely, what are the causes that have brought 

 about that great change in the general and 

 popular appreciation of philosophical discus- 

 sions? How is it that instead of one or two 

 dominant systems of thought we have now 

 what may be called a complete anarchy, or, 

 at best, a bewildering electicism? ... I will 

 at once answer this question. The great 

 change referred to is owing to the growth and 

 diffusion of the critical spirit, taking this 

 term in its widest sense " (pp. 93-95) . Ac- 

 cordingly, the scene being thus shifted, there 

 is no little need of the warning that Dr. Merz 

 is careful to issue. " I think it will be more 

 helpful to my readers if, when entering on a 

 new portion of my subject, I immediately im- 

 press upon them the necessity of adopting an 

 entirely different point of view from that to 

 which they may have become accustomed by 

 the perusal of the former volumes. So 

 strongly do I feel the necessity of this, that I 

 am inclined to say that, except they are pre- 

 pared to familiarize themselves with an en- 

 tirely altered set of interests, problems and 

 methods, I shall fail to gain, or to retain, their 

 attention in that which follows" (p. 34). 

 This, then, indicates the general setting. 



The method employed to reach the special 

 divisions is also set forth clearly. " The dual- 

 ism which pervades all modern thought will 

 occupy us quite as much as the attempts 

 towards unification" (p. 56). "In Leibniz 

 philosophical thought arrived at the position 

 which, with certain interruptions, it still occu- 

 pies at the present day; its task being, not to 

 afford new knowledge, but to mediate between 

 the claims of two kinds of knowledge: that 

 which deals with things surrounding us in 

 time and space, and that which deals with the 

 highest questions of our life, our destiny, and 

 our duties" (pp. 334^335). Thus, following 

 Kant's famous pronouncement, at the close of 

 the " Critique of Practical Reason," Dr. Merz 

 finds himself confronted with two central prob- 

 lems. " The first begins with the place which 

 I occupy in the outer world of the senses and 

 expands the connections in which I stand into 

 the invisibly great, with worlds upon worlds 



