change of Evolution, and of ever-varying relations. But the great minds of our time will solve this question without falling into apathetic despair; and if new times with new necessities and new problems present themselves, new men will still be ready to meet them, as the active man does not shrink from the new task of the morrow.

CHAPTER XV.

'DISCIPLINARY' CHARACTER OF PHILOSOPHY AND OF ALL THEORY.

I HAVE thus roughly traced the History of Philosophy, i.e. the history of the highest attempt on the part of the human mind to reflect the ever-changing conditions of life.

Besides the intrinsic value of philosophy, there is one resultant of the study of its history to which we shall now direct our attention.

A father may forbid his child the eating of certain fruit, because it is his conviction that such fruit at such a time is deleterious to health. The aim of this prohibitive act of the father lies proximately in the fruit, or rather in the desistence from eating that fruit. But the father may forbid this act in order that the child may learn the power of renunciation and of selfcontrol, or the great science of obeying: the aim would then be the lasting formation of character-it would be disciplinary. Similarly we may study the history of philosophy with the immediate aim of knowing what great men thought, or we may recommend this study for its disciplinary results.

c. xv.] 'Disciplinary' Character of Philosophy. 167

One of the most important of the results derived from the study of the history of philosophy is a cultivation of Intellectual Sympathy. It is the power of transplanting ourselves into the different modes of thought of different individuals in different ages and climes, of thinking with and in others; and in thinking with others we can learn to feel with others. Intellectual sympathy is the highest stage of general sympathy. And as we are most likely to undergo readily the lesser renunciations of life if we have practised renouncing the greater pleasures that fill our whole heart, so it is highly probable that we can best intensify and widen lower stages of sympathy by cultivating this highest development. A man who can not only follow his different contemporaries in their peculiar directions of thought, can not only comprehend a Mill and a Spencer, but also think with. a Plato and a Democritus, a St. Augustine and an Abelard, a Locke and a Kant,-such a man can in all probability 'live himself into' the thoughts of his nextdoor neighbour.

How closely allied is this intellectual sympathy with that toleration and tact which makes life agreeable! Nay, this toleration and tact is the very outcome of putting one's-self in other people's place, or imagining them in our own position. All the petty annoyances of life, which cause us so much vexation, and waste a great part of our vital energy, so much needed for more earnest struggles, are to be traced back to our incapacity, first to think with others, and then to feel for them. Here a person condemns an action, and despises or even hates another, while he or she, under similar circumstances,

would have acted in the same manner, and while his ardently-loved own person is no better or worse than the culpable objects of his disapproval. There a weakminded individual becomes a misanthropist because he is thwarted in his expectations of all-devotion towards himself on the part of others, while he himself is far from entertaining towards all others the feelings which he expects some to have for him. Here an over-openhearted youth who pours forth intimate confessions in the ears of all whom he terms friends, or who will listen to him, one day awakes to the consciousness, and thence to a feeling of just indignation, that others do not feel bound to pour forth their intimate confessions in return.

Instances of faults arising from a lack of sympathy abound. Sympathy is the mother of all social justice, the guardian of prosperous society, and the enemy [of Egoism. How much evil would be done away with if people could learn to think objectively, and feel sympathetically! Here lies the secret, not only of errors, but of vast excesses and passions and crimes. Spite and malice and vengeance generally rule in our breasts, because we cramp huge things within the lurid vision of our little self. And it is a pleasing fact that sympathy can be taught; that it is not, as many occidental fatalists believe, inborn and not acquirable. All education and knowledge tend to widen our sympathies, all cultivation of our intellect widens the field of our Emotions. Among the studies taught in our schools, History, if properly taught, is the one most effective as a discipline in sympathy; but still more important for this purpose than the history of events is the history

of thought which led to such events. And this study is not taught in schools. In some schools, it is true, pupils of the higher classes learn some elements of Formal Logic and of Psychology, of a dogmatic type, suiting the individual taste of the teacher, and the result is a lasting dislike for such 'abstruse stuff.' But there is no reason for maintaining that the study of the History of Philosophy is too abstract and difficult for young people. Our power of abstraction is sufficiently taxed in learning the rudiments of Arithmetic and Geometry and Algebra. Under normal circumstances, the difficulty of learning Mathematics and Physics, and of reading Latin and Greek authors, is just as great as of studying the thoughts of an Aristotle. Then too this study is relieved and rendered less abstract by the historical element, the personal and biographical part which forms the background. Of course, a great deal depends upon the method of teaching; we can make people learn certain things, and we can cause them to unlearn even the taste for such things. We can thus train ourselves and be trained, to think and feel so that we may be most suited to the great tasks of life. This is most practical.

We have seen how Science is the higher development of common thought, and we have endeavoured to trace the most general science, Philosophy, down to its origin. The results of all these mental processes are most practical; all sciences together form what we call Theory, and Theory is the outcome of all Practice; it is condensed Practice; in so far it is most practical. All Theory is false that will not bear the