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CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

INTRODUCTION.

I. Thought, the hidden world, 1; The only moving principle, 2; History of

Nature, how to be understood, 2; Not intelligible without intellect, 2;

History of savage tribes, what is it? 3; Two ways in which thought enters

into history, 4; Definition of thought impossible, 4; Relation of outer

and inner worlds undefined, 5; Many meanings of thought, 5; Thought

of the present age, 6; Contemporary history, to what extent possible

and valuable, 6; Supposed objectivity of historians, 7; Value of contem-

porary records, 8; Mystery of the life of thought, 8; Latent thought the

material for genius, 8; Contemporary record of thought more faithful,

10; Events of the immediate past, 10; Changes of language, 11; Coining

of new words, 12; Object of this work, 13; Not a political history, nor a

history of science, literature, and art, 13; Influences which have a result

on our inner life, 14; Personal knowledge necessary, 14; American influ-

ence only touched upon, 14; Only French, German, and English thought

treated, 15; Unity of thought, a product of this century, 16; Voltaire,

16; Adam Smith, 16; Coleridge and Wordsworth, 17; Mme. de Staël,

17; Paris the focus of science, 17; Babbage, Herschel, and Peacock, 18;

Liebig's laboratory, 18; Comte's philosophy, 18; Constable's influence in

France, 19; Science become international, 19; The light which etymology

throws on the history of thought, 20; Goethe, 22; Peculiarity of the

German language, 22; New thought has found new words, 23; De Bon-

ald and Max Müller, 23; Thought, how expressed in French and Ger-

man, 24; Philosophy of History, 25; Want of precise terms in German

and French, 26; Carlyle, 26.

II. The two factors of intellectual progress, 27; Object of the book, 28;

Nineteenth century, what it has achieved: (a) Method of knowledge; (b)

Unity of knowledge, 29; Search after truth, 29; Method of science, prac-

tised by Galileo, &c., defined by Bacon, &c., 30; Disintegration of learn-

ing, 30; Apparent distance between science and poetry, 31; Closer con-

nection between science and life, 31; What has nineteenth century done

for the ideals? 32; Deeper conception of the unity of human interests,

33; Different terms for expressing this unity, 33; Definition of thought,

33; Age of encyclopædic treatment of learning, 34; Unity of knowledge

gradually lost sight of, 35; Lectures on "Encyclopædie" in Germany, 37;

Encyclopædias did not fulfil their promise, 39; French were masters in

science in beginning of the century, 41; Reaction in Germany against

metaphysics, 43; Reform in school literature, 44; Germany has taken

the lead in studying the life of thought, 46; Transition from meta-

physical to historical method, 47; Herbert Spencer, 48; Lotze, 48;

Herder's 'Ideen,' 50; Humboldt's 'Kosmos,' 51; Lotze's 'Microcosmus,'

52; What the mental life of mankind consists of, 55; Methods have

their day and cease to be, 56.

III. Necessity of choosing a road, 57; No central event in our age, 58; Is

history of thought history of philosophy? 60; Goethe's work involves

the deepest thought of the century, 61; Philosophy retrospective, 62;

Two questions, 63; Speculation, 64; Philosophy defined, 65; Division

of the book, 65; Neither science nor philosophy exhaust "thought,” 66 ;

Thought also hidden in literature and art, 66; Goethe's and Words-

worth's influence, 67; Unmethodical thought, 68; Summed up in term

"religious thought," 69; Science is exact, 69; Subjective interests, 70;

Philosophy intermediate between exact science and religion, 71; Three-

fold aspect of thought: scientific, philosophical, individual, 72; Difficult to

separate the three aspects, 74; French thought centred in science, 75;

State of philosophy in England, 75; Goethe's 'Faust' representative of the

thought of the century, 76; A period of ferment, 76; Caused by the

Revolution, 77; Thought of century partly radical, partly reactionary,

77; Byronic school, 78; Revolutionary theories, 79; Thought to be con-

sidered as a constructive power, 80; Darwin, Spencer, and Lotze, 81;

Romanticism, 82; Scientific thought to be dealt with first, 84; Hegel's

doctrine, 85.

Three chapters on the growth and the diffusion of the scientific spirit
in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Our century the scientific century, 89; Difference of English and Continental

notions of science, 91; Relation of science and life, 92; Foreseen by

Bacon, 93; Defect in Bacon's philosophy, 94; Corrected by Newton, 95;

Bacon's and Newton's ideas taken up by French philosophers: Bacon and

Newton compared, 96; Laplace's work, 97; French Academy of Sciences,

99; Continental methods in mathematics, 100; Modern analytical

methods, 102; Older synthetical methods, 103; Influence of science

on French literature, 104; Absence of this influence in England and

Germany, 106; Schools of science in Paris, 106; Promoted by Govern-

ments of Revolution, 108; Condorcet, 110; Lakanal, 111; École normale,

École polytechnique, 112; Monge's 'Descriptive Geometry,' 114; Science

of Chemistry, 114; New mathematical sciences, 116; Crystallography,

116; Theory of probability, 118; Laplace gained his results by dis-

regarding "individuality," 124; The centre of interest in the sciences of

life, 125; Into this centre Cuvier carried exact research, 128; Cuvier's

training, 133; Cuvier the greatest representative of the Academic system,

136; Science during the Revolution and First Empire, 138; Popular-

isation of science in France, 142; Literary and national popularisation,

142; Dangers of the former, 143; The Revolution added the practical

popularisation, 145; Influence of the first Napoleon on science, 149;

Napoleon favoured the mathematical sciences, 151; Discountenanced

contemporary philosophy, 152; Used statistical methods, 153; Promi-

nence given deservedly to French names by Cuvier, 155.

THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN GERMANY.

Foundation of German universities, 158; Development of the universities by
the people, 159; Geographical distribution of the universities, 162; Full
development of the German university system, 163; Philosophical fac-
ulty, 164; University of Göttingen, 164; Relation of universities and

high schools, 166; The university a training - school for research, 167;

The ideal of Wissenschaft, 168; Developed under the German university

system, 170; Reception of exact science in Germany, 174; Science not

yet domiciled during the eighteenth century, 178; Scientific periodicals,

180; Gauss's mathematical researches, 181; Scientific spirit enters the

universities in second quarter of century, 183; Jacobi's mathematical

school, 185; Chemical laboratories established in 1826 through Liebig,

188; Cosmopolitan character of German science, 189; Liebig's organic

analysis, 191; Biology a German science, 193; Cellular theory of

Schleiden, 194; and Schwann, 195; Ernst Heinrich Weber, 196; and

Johannes Müller, 197; Psychophysics, 198; Spirit of exact research and

Wissenschaft, 202; Encyclopædic view necessary in philosophy and

history, 203; Philosophy of Nature, 204; Conflict between the scientific

and the philosophical views, 205; A. von Humboldt, 206; Influence of

Berzelius on German science, 208; Philosophy of Nature and medical

science, 209; Science for its own sake, 211; Bequest of the classical and

philosophical school, 211; Completeness and thoroughness of research,

213; Combination of research and teaching, 214; Combination of science

and philosophy, 215; Biology grown out of science and philosophy com-

bined, 216; Du Bois-Reymond on Müller, 217; "Vital force" abandoned,

218; Mechanical view in biology, 219; Criticism of principles of mathe-

matics, 221; The exact, the historical, and the critical habits of thought,

222.

THE ASTRONOMICAL VIEW OF NATURE.

The scientific spirit in the first and second half of the century, 302; Science

become international, 303; Disappearance of national differences, 305;

Special scientific ideas, 306; Philosophy of science, 306; Whewell's
'History' and 'Philosophy,' 309; Philosophy and science, 311; Leading

scientific ideas mostly very ancient, 312; Mathematical spirit, 314;

When first introduced into science, 317; Newton's 'Principia,' 318; The

gravitation formula, 319; Lines of thought emanating from it, 321;

Element of error, 323; Laplace and Newton, 326; Several interests

which promote science, 326; Insufficiency of observation, 328; Practical

interest, 328; Focalising effect of mathematical formulæ, 332; Matter

and force mathematically defined, 334; Weight and mass, 336; Gravi-

tation not an ultimate property of matter, 338; Attraction and repulsion,

342; Electrical and magnetic action, 344; Law of emanations, 344;

Molecular action, 346; The astronomical view: Cosmical, molar, and

molecular phenomena, 348; Special interest attached to molar dimen-

sions, 350; Geometrical axioms, 352; Difficulty of measuring gravitation

directly, 353; Astronomical view of molecular phenomena, 354; Capil-

lary attraction, 356; Boscovich's extension of the Newtonian formula,

357; Coulomb's measurements, 360; Extended by Gauss and Weber,

360; Davy and Faraday, 363; Ampère and Weber develop the astro-

nomical view, 366; Weber's fundamental measurements, 368; Necessity

of developing the infinitesimal methods, 373; Newtonian formula the

basis of physical astronomy, 375; The Newtonian formula unique as to

universality and accuracy, 377; Is it an ultimate law? 378; Laplace's

opinion, 378; Opposition to the astronomical view of nature, 381.

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