two kinds of, 101, 109;
name explained, 414.
Paolo Giovio, 96.
Para du Phanjas, 464.
Parable, distinguished from myth, 269.
Paris, àbbé, miracles of, 150.
Parker, Theodore, life and writings of, 323, 324.
Pascal, 470.
Patriotism in Germany, 240.
Paulus, German theologian, 232 seq.
Pearson on infidelity, 13, 311.
Pecock, Reginald, 98.
Pentateuch controversy, 254 seq.
Peregrinus Proteus of Lucian, 49 seq. 402.
Persecution, cause of, 404 seq.
Pestalozzi, 383.
Peter, St. joke on in Romantic Epic, 94.
Petrarch on Evidences, 462.
Pfaff, 419.
Phases of Faith, of F. W. Newman, 327.
Philippsohn on Judaism, 387.
Philopatris of Pseudo-Lucian, 67, 409.
Philosophy, scholastic, 78 seq.;
German, 235 seq. 438.
Philostratus’s Life of Apollouius, 63 seq.
Physics, difficulties derived from, 350;
teaches logical method, 98.
Physiology, modern discoveries in. 355;
mode of approaching psychology through, 438.
Piers Plowman, the poem, on contemporary scepticism, 90.
Pietism, 213, 424.
Planck, A. on Lucian, 50, 402.
Planck’s Sacred Philology, 221.
Plato on Sophists, 42;
doctrines on religion, 45;
Platonic dialectic, 78;
Platonic party at Cambridge in the seventeenth century, 124, 392.
Plurality of worlds, 201.
Poetry in Germany, schools of, 425.
Pomponatius, 101.
Pope, compared with Milton and Tennyson, 22;
influence of Bolingbroke on, 145.
Porphyry, life and character, 56 seq. 71;
references for studying, 56;
view of oracles, 57;
work against Christians, 57 seq.;
attack on Daniel, 60 seq.;
other views of, 61, 62;
on predication, 57;
letter to Marcella, 71.
Port Royal, miracle of the thorn, 153.
Positivism, described, 296;
in England, 311;
religion of, 312;
compared with Naturalism, 339.
Pouilly, critic on Roman history, 144.
Powell, Baden, on Deluge, 17.
Prayer, extract from Guizot on, 395.
Prejudices of heathens against Christianity, 405.
Presentative consciousness, 394.
Press, freedom of in England, 123.
Pressensé, pref. xix., 42, 356, 404, 448, 449, 451, 453.
Priestly, 392.
Printsterer, Groen van, 445.
Progress in religion, 87.
Protestant church in France, freethought in, 304, 448.
Protestantism distinguished from scepticism, pref. vi.; 9, 99.
Providence, Holyoake on, 313.
Psalms: the seventy-third named, 5, 19;
the division of into books, 256.
Pseudo-Clementines, 400.
Pseudo-Lucian, Philopatris, 409.
Psychology explained, 24;
Morrell on, 395.
_Pugio Fidei_, 385.
Pulci, 95.
Pusey on German theology, pref. xxi.;
on inspiration, 475.
Quakers, 29.
Quarterly Review, on Leopardi, 16;
on Romantic Epic, 94;
on Theophilanthropists, 190;
on Fourier, 292.
Quinet, E. on comparison of religions, 5, 381;
on Strauss, 273.
Racovian Catechism, 391.
Rámayana, 382.
Rambouillet, 178.
Ramus, P. 102.
Rationalism in Germany, 11, 231, 234;
subdivided, 218, 417;
compared with Deism, 321;
explained, 416 seq.;
literary dispute on, 418;
in English church, 329, 340.
Ratisbon, confession of, 212.
Ray, 466.
Raymond, Martin, 386.
Raynal, 178.
Reaction among heathens, 44;
Catholic in France, 300, 448;
in Italy, 103;
in Oxford, 285, 310.
Readings, variety of in sacred texts, 182.
Realism explained, 9, 79 seq.
Rees, translation of Racovian Catechism, 391.
Reformation, twofold element in, 211;
not sceptical, 9, 99:
pref. vi.; 211;
in Italy, 99.
Reformed Jews, 387.
Reimannus, 7.
Reimarus, 225, 426.
Reinhardt, 231.
Reinhold, 228.
Religion, comparative study of, 4, 380;
Greek, 5;
eastern, 4.
Remonstrants in Dutch church, 110, 445.
Renaissance, 92 seq.;
literature at, 96;
unchristian sympathy at, 96;
evidences at, 462.
Renan, E. 5, 31, 302 seq.; 397;
Averroes, 89;
Lect. III. _passim_.
Rénand, 299.
Repressor. See _Pecock_.
Responsibility for belief, 18.
Reuss, 448.
Reville, 446, 448.
Revolution, French, 188;
profanity of, 189.
Revue des Deux Mondes; Taillandier on Abélard, 81;
Saisset on Spinoza, 106;
Remusat on Herbert, 119;
Girardin on Rousseau’s _Emile_, 188;
Scherer on Hegel, 266, 398;
Reville on Parker, 324;
on Comte, 296;
Moleschott, 438;
Young Hegelians, 438;
Reville on Holland, 446;
Renan on metaphysics, 303.
Revue Germanique, on Lessing, 224;
on Gospels, 267.
Richardi _Confutatio_, 388.
Riddle’s Bampton Lectures, pref. xv.; 468.
Rigg, J. H. Anglican theology, 330.
Riggenbach, 445.
Robespierre, 190.
Robins, S. pref. xvi.
Rogers, H. 374, 469.
Röhr, 234.
Romaine, 160.
Roman catholic theology in Germany, 442.
Romantic Epic, 94 seq.;
school in Germany, 239, 291.
Roscelin on Trinity, 80.
Rose, H. J. on German theology, pref. xxi.
Rosenmüller, 220.
Rothe, German theologian, 279, 281, 436.
Rousseau, sources for study of, 183;
life, 183;
works, 184 seq.;
_Contral social_, 184;
Emile, 185;
_Confessions_, 187;
compared with Voltaire, 188.
Ruge, 275.
Saintes-Amand, pref. xxiv.
Saisset, E. on Spinoza. 108.
Salomo Zebi. 386.
Salvador, 299, 387.
Sanskrit literature, 382.
Saumur, school of, 212.
Saussure, Ch. de la, 446.
Scepticism explained, 418 seq.;
kinds of, 419.
Schelling, 27, 46, 238, 433.
Scherer, 31, 397, 448, 474.
Schlegel, F. 239.
Schleiermacher, 242 seq.;
critical works of, 248;
translates Plato, 242;
theological works of, 244, 428 seq.;
Glaubenslehre, 245;
his studies, 428;
compared with Origen and H. St. Victor, 244;
and with Plato, 427.
Schmidt, G. 276.
Schneckenbürger, 436.
Scholastic, philosophy, 77 seq.;
origin of name, 77;
divisions of, 81;
value of scholastic theology, 462.
Scholtens J. H. professor at Leyden, 446.
Schools of German poetry, 425.
Schopenhauer, 438.
Schramm, _Anal. Patr._ 41, 454.
Schrockh, pref. xvii.
Scholtens, 446.
Schulze, 228.
Schwarz, C. _Gesch._ pref. xxv.
Schwegler, 436.
Schweizer, 439, 444.
Science, anticipations of the future condition of, 354 seq.
_Science in theology_, 385.
Scriptures, doubts of, 361.
Sebonde on natural religion, 104, 462.
Secker, Abp. relieves Annet, 144;
subscribes to Voltaire, 171.
Secularism, explained, 312, 313.
Semler, works and system, 218 seq.
Sensation, as a test of truth, 25.
Sensationalisim, meaning of, 25.
Servetus, 99.
Severus, Sept. 63.
Shaftesbury, Lord, 130 seq.
Shelley, 16; 203 seq.;
works, 206.
Sherlock, 467.
_Sic et Non_, 82.
Silence of heathens on Christianity, 402 seq.
Simeon of Cambridge, 160.
Simon, Jules, 471.
Simon, Richard, 83, 168.
Sirven, 170.
Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, on Ecclesiastes, 5;
Canon, 58;
Genesis, 257;
Daniel, 408;
Jehovah, 480.
Socialism, English, 201;
French, 292;
in 1848, 294;
compared with English, 294.
Socinianism, 12, 99, 391.
Socrates, 84, 351.
Σοφία, of Aristotle, 78.
Sophists of Greece, 351.
Sources of information for the attacks of heathens, 41.
Sources for lectures, pref.
Spener, the Pietist, 213, 424.
Spinoza, 60;
sources of information on, 106;
philosophy of, 107;
_Theologicus Politicus_, 110;
effects of 113.
Stahl, 283.
Stanhope’s Boyle Lectures, 386.
Statistics, difficulties from, 314.
Stattler, 464.
Stephen, list of writers on inspiration, 474.
Sterling, 34.
Stilling, Jung, 243, 285.
Stillingfleet, 466.
Stirner, 276.
St. Lambert. See _Lambert_.
Stoics, religious opinions of, 45.
Storr, 231.
Strauss, 34;
on Julian, 66;
life and writings, 267, 434;
life of Christ, 266, 271;
Christology, 269, 433;
view of Christ’s ideal, 356;
replies to, 273, 435;
effects of, 272 seq.;
view of his own work, 273;
on Reimarus, 427.
St. Simon, life and sect, 293, 294.
Subjective character of modern unbelief, 308.
Συγκατάβασις, 222.
Suetonius on Christianity, 401.
Supernatural, tendency of labour to depress the sense of, 314
Swedenborg, 29.
Swift, on Woolston, 137.
Switzerland, modern theology of, 444.
Symmachus, 69.
Tacitus on Christianity, 401.
Taillandier on Abélard, 81, 83.
Taine on Livy, 302, 379.
Tatian, 48, 456.
Taylor, A. on Latitudinarians, 128.
Taylor, I. 469.
Technical. See _Terms_.
Telesius, 102.
Templars, unbelief of, 89.
Tendencies, religious, among ancient heathens, 40 seq.
Tennyson, compared with Pope and Milton, 23;
quoted, 260.
Terms, technical, 413; literature of, 419.
Tertullian’s Apology, 457.
Tests of truth, effects of various theories of, 25-30.
Thaer, author of Lessing’s _Education of the World_, 87.
Theodore of Mopsuestia, 221.
Theodosius II. destroyer of heathen works against Christianity, 41.
Theologians, German; classification of, 440 seq.
See _Modern English_.
Theophilanthropists, 190.
Theophilus, apologist, 457.
Tholuck, 249;
on evidences, 464:
pref. xxiii.;
on inspiration, 473;
attack on Butler’s Analogy, 157.
Thomson’s, Bp. Bampton Lectures, 368, 385, 469.
See _Atonement_.
Tillemont, pref. xvii.
Tindal, M. works, 139 seq.;
suggestive of Butler’s Analogy, 157.
Toland, works, 127 seq.
Toldos Jeschu, 385.
Toleration, works on, and principle of, 118, 406.
Treason, charge of against early Christians, 406.
Trench’s Calderon, 95.
Truth, see _Tests_.
Tübingen school, 209, 274, 277, 367;
university of, 219.
Tullocks Inaugural Address, 339;
Burnett prize, 469.
Turpin, Abp. joke on in Romantic Epic, 95.
Twelfth century, great minds in, 86.
Twesten, 250.
Tzehirner’s _Essay_, 400;
_Apologetik_, pref. xix.
Ullmann, 250.
Unbelief, see _Cause_, _Subjective_.
Uniformities of Causation and Co-existence, 79.
Unigenitus Bull, 165.
Union of German churches, 282.
Unitarianism, history of, and works on, 392 seq.
Universities, German, 219, 223;
that of Paris attacked for Pantheism, 299.
Utility of the inquiry into doubt, pref. xii, 342 seq.
Van den Ende, 106.
Vanim, 103
Van Mildert, pref. vi, xv.;
on moral causes of doubt, 13, 345.
Vaughan, R. A. on mystics, 30; essays, 59.
Vedas, 382.
Vendidad Sade, 381.
Vilmar, classification of German poetry, 425.
Vinet, 444, 448.
Vituperation in books of evidence of seventeenth century, 465.
Volney, _Les Ruines_, 191 seq.; 290.
Voltaire, on Woolston, 137;
life of, 170;
character of, 171 seq.;
Carlyle on, 171;
theological works of, 174;
opinions of, 175;
ridicule, 172.
Vowel points in Hebrew, controversy on, 113.
Wagenseil, _Tela Ignea Satanœ_, 385.
Walch, 419, 460.
Walton’s Polyglott, various readings in, 132.
Warburton, Divine Legation, 466, 467.
Waterland, reply to Tindal, 188, 464.
Watson, Bp. 198, 464.
Webb on Locke, 168.
Wegscheider, 234.
Weimar, court of, 228.
Welcker on mythology, 450.
Werenfels, tests for miracles, 153.
Wesley, 161, 392.
Westcott on canon, 53;
on Daniel, 408;
on Inspiration, 472.
Westminster Review:
on Job, 5;
Heine, 16;
Rousseau, 183;
German theology, 8;
Byron and Shelley, 208;
Owen, 202;
Weimar, 228;
Vedas, 383;
Bentham, 309;
Positivism, 312;
Carlyle, 315;
Emerson, 317;
S. Hennell, 323;
Parker and Strauss, 324;
F. Newman, 327;
Socialism, 438;
Taine, 302;
Schopenbauer, 432.
Whately’s Rhetoric, 14.
Whewell, 28, 79, 369.
White, Blanco, 34.
Whitfield, 160.
Wichern’s Inner Mission, 285.
Will distinct from Emotion, 394.
Wiseman, Cardinal, Lectures, 469.
Wolfenbüttel Fragments, 225, 426 seq.
Wolf, J. A. on Homer, 253.
Wolff’s Bibliotheca Hebraica, 386.
Wollf, philosophy of, 214 seq.;
life of, 215, 216;
sources for studying, 215;
effects of, 216.
Woodham, 78, 454.
Woolstencraft, 200.
Woolston, 136 seq. 420.
Wordsworth quoted, 115; 309.
Wulferus, 386.
Xavier, Hieronimo, a writer against the Mahometans, 296.
Yaçna, 387.
Young’s _Christ of History_, 469.
Zeitstimmen, &c., 436.
Zeller, 436, 444.
Zend Literature, 381.
Zeno of Elea, 84.
Zinzendorf, 101.
Zoroaster, 381.
Zurich, university of, 444.
FOOTNOTES
1 Pref. pp. v.-ix.
2 Id. pp. x, xi.
3 Id. pp. xii, xiii.
4 Id. p. xiv.
5 Lect. I.: and Lect. VIII. p. 340 seq.
6 E.g., in the French expression _la libre pensée_.
7 In Note, p. 413.
8 In 1713.
9 Many of the modern French protestant critics so employ it; e.g. A.
Reville, _Rev. des Deux Mondes_, Parker, Oct. 1861.
10 Cfr. pp. 9 and 99.
11 Cfr. p. 12, and Notes 4, 5, and 6, at the end of this volume.
12 Boyle Lectures (1802-4). See note, p. 345.
13 Bacon’s Nov. Org. lib. i. Aph. 104.
14 Cfr. pp. 14-20.
15 Pp. 32-34. Pp. 22, 24, 25.
16 Pp. 24-31.
17 Cfr. p. 346.
18 See especially Lect. VIII. p. 357 seq.
19 Some valuable remarks on the proper balance of the mind in study are
contained in a sermon, _The Nemesis of Excess_, recently preached at
Oxford, by Bp. Jackson.
20 pp. 35-37.
21 Cfr. pp. 31 note, 342; and Note 9. pp. 396-8.
_ 22 The Natural History of Infidelity and Superstition in Contrast with
Christian Faith._
23 A work partly on the history of unbelief, _Scepticism a
Retrogressive Move in Theology and Philosophy_, has also been lately
written (1861) by the accomplished lord Lindsay. Great learning is
shown in it. Though written with a special controversial purpose,
and though the facts accordingly are briefly stated, without
literary references, it contains a useful summary and suggestive
reflections.
24 In a literary point of view it is incorrect, in one chapter, if the
author understands Mr. Robins rightly, where he seems to classify
together, under the same head of Pantheism, the atheism of the
French school of the Encyclopædists in the last century and that of
the German philosophers of the present. The two indeed agree in
denying or ignoring the existence of a personal God; but in tone,
premises, and metaphysical relations, they differ diametrically.
(Since this note was written, the sad intelligence of Mr. Robins’s
death has appeared.)
_ 25 Christliche Kirchengeschichte_, &c. 45 vols. 1768-1812. The writer
of these lectures has taken occasion elsewhere (p. 466.) to deplore
the want of any complete history of the English church. He may here
add also the want of a history in English of European Christianity
since the Reformation.
26 It may offer an explanation of subsequent references to some church
historians, to name the classification given by Schaff (_Bibliotheca
Sacra_, 1850). After treating of the ancient and mediæval histories,
and making the obvious subdivision of the modern into Romish and
Protestant, and subdividing these again according to their nations,
he arranges the Protestant historians of Germany chronologically
under five classes: (1) the Polemico-orthodox, such as the Magdeburg
centuriators; (2) the Pietistic,—Arnold and Weismann; (3) the
Pragmatico-super-natural,—Mosheim, Walch, Planck, Schröckh; (4) the
Rationalist,—Semler, Henke, Gieseler (in reference to which latter
he is perhaps hardly fair); (5) the Scientific, viz. (α) of the
Schleiermacher school,—Neander; (β) of the Hegelian, unchurchlike
and heterodox,—Baur; (γ) of the Hegelian, churchlike and
orthodox,—Dorner. Concerning older church historians, see the late
Rev. J. G. Dowling’s excellent work, _Introduction to the Critical
Study of Ecclesiastical History_, 1838; and, on the most modern
German church historians, see _North British Review_, Nov. 1858.
27 Lect. III. pp. 100-103.
_ 28 Geschichte des Englischen Deismus._ 1841.
_ 29 J. Leland’s View of the Deistical Writers_, 1754. An edition
published in 1837 contains an account of the subsequent history of
Deism by Cyrus R. Edmonds. It is edited by Dr. W. L. Brown.
30 Lecture II.
31 An older work, in some respects similar to Pressensé’s, is
Tzchirner’s _Geschichte der Apologetik_, 1805.
32 Lecture III.
33 See p. 82, note.
34 P. 76, note.
35 Lecture IV.
36 The able French critic C. Remusat has bestowed attention on some of
the English deists. A paper on Shaftesbury has appeared since
Lecture IV. was printed, in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, Nov. 1862.
37 In Lecture V.
38 Edited by Vater.
39 See p. 177, note.
40 See p. 164, note.
41 Lectures VI. and VII.
42 Lecture VI. p. 213.
43 Some of these works were subsequent to the discussion caused abroad
by the sermons of Mr. Rose, described below.
44 Afterwards Principal of the King’s College, London.
_ 45 Historical Inquiry into the Probable Causes of the Rationalist
Character lately predominant in the Theology of Germany._
46 1829.
_ 47 Historical Inquiry_, &c. part ii. 1830.
48 P. 241.
49 Dr. S. Lee, of Cambridge, also appended a dissertation on some
points of German Rationalism to his _Six Sermons on Prophecy_, 1830.
50 In the Appendix to the second edition of the _State of Protestantism
in Germany_, 1829.
51 A brief sketch of Tholuck’s views it given in the _Foreign Quarterly
Review_, vol. 25.
_ 52 Der Deutsche Protestantismus, seine Vergangenheit and seine
heutigen Lebensfragen in zusammenhang der gesammten
rationalentwickelung beleuchlet von einem Deutschen._ A very
instructive article was written in the _British Quarterly Review_,
No. 26, May 1851, founded chiefly on this work.
53 Kahnis, _Internal History of German Protestantism_ (E. T.), p. 169,
note.
54 An English clergyman, Mr. E. H. Dewar, wrote a small work in 1844,
on _German Protestantism_; based chiefly on Amand Saintes, but in
tone like that of Mr. Rose. It was considered very unfair, and was
answered by Neander in the _Jahrbücher fur Wissenschaftliche
Kritik_, October 1844; and when Mr. Dewar replied, was again
answered by him in _Antwortschreiben_, 1845. It may be proper to
name here, that Mr. B. Hawkins’s work, _Germany, Spirit of her
History_, &c. 1838, contains miscellaneous information on many
points of German life, which illustrate this portion of the history.
55 P. 279. Neander has also written a work, _Geschichte des
Verflossenen halb-Jahrhunderts_. (_Deutsche Zeitschrift_, 1850.)
56 He belongs to a new form of the historico-critical school; See Note
41, p. 438; but writes without prejudice. An article elsewhere
referred to (p. 7) in the _Westminster Review_, may convey an idea
of the facts of Schwarz’s work; but it expresses a more definite
tendency and opinions than his work.
57 Lect. VII. p. 289 seq.
58 P. 290, note.
59 Id.
60 Lect. VIII.
61 As the relation of the present condition of religions belief in
England to forms of philosophy may not have been made perfectly
clear even by the remarks in Lect. VIII. p. 330 seq., and Note 9 (p.
396), it may be well here to state the sequence intended, even at
the risk of repetition. The father of the modern philosophy is Kant.
He first gave the impulse to resolve truth, which was supposed to be
objective, into subjective forms of thought. Hence, in succeeding
systems of philosophy, the idea was thought to be of more importance
than the facts; and an _à priori_ tendency was created. But in the
two philosophers, Schelling and Hegel, this developed in different
modes. Both sought to approach facts through ideas; to both the
ideal world was the real; but with the former, truth was absolute,
with the latter, relative. In the former case the mind was thrown in
upon itself, and had a secure ground of truth in the eternal truths
of the reason; in the latter it was thrown (ultimately, though not
immediately) outward, and taught to trace the transition of the
ideas in the world, the growth of truth in history. Hence in
theology, while the tendency of both was to find an appeal for truth
independent of revelation, the one produced an intuitional religion,
the other, proximately, an ideal, but ultimately generates
scepticism; for the one clings to the eternal ideas in the mind, the
other views the fleeting, changing aspects of truth in the world.
The spirit of the former is seen in Carlyle, Coleridge, and Cousin;
the spirit of the latter in Renan and Scherer, and is beginning to
appear in the younger writers of the English periodical literature.
Hence in English theology we have two broadly marked divisions; one
doctrinal, and the other literary; the former of which subdivides
into the two just named.
62 Many references to them are given in Smith’s (American) Translation
of Hagenbach’s _Hist. of Doctr._ 1862.
63 In Lect. I. p. 16 (last par.), 35, 36; In Lect. II. p. 66 (last
par.); in Lect. III. p. 80 (last half), 81 (first half), 92, 97; 98
(last par.), 99; 102, 104, 105, 108, 111 (part): in Lect. IV. p.
120, 122, 124 (part), 141, 143, 145-147; 148: in Lect. V. p. 181,
182; 184; 196-203; in Lect. VI. p. 210, 237; 250-259 (nearly all):
in Lect. VII. p. 281 (part); 291-301: in Lect. VIII. p. 307 (part);
310-339 (for which a brief analysis was substituted); p. 344; 355,
369 (part).
64 His thanks are especially due to Mr. Macray, the Librarian of the
Taylor Institution, for his kindness in the last respect.
65 Pp. 38, 378.
66 The attitude of the mind towards the national mythology in
successive ages of Greek history has been treated by Grote, _History
of Greece_, vol I. ch. 16.
67 See Quinet’s _Œuvres_, t. i. c. 5, and especially § 4. On the doubts
expressed in the books of Job and Ecclesiastes respectively, see the
article _Job_ by Hengstenberg in Kitto’s _Cyclopædia of Biblical
Literature_, (reprinted in a volume of Hengstenberg’s miscellaneous
works), and the article _Ecclesiastes_ by Mr. Plumptre in Smith’s
_Dictionary of the Bible_. For the free-thinking inquiry into the
two books, see the article on Job in the _Westminster Review_,
October 1853, founded mainly on Hirzel; and that on Ecclesiastes in
the _National Review_, No. 27, for January 1862, founded chiefly on
Hitzig. E. Renan, in his work on Job, and others, have studied the
doubts expressed in it as an internal evidence for its date. Very
full information in reference to both books may be found in Dr. S.
Davidson’s _Introd. to the Old Testament_ (1862), vol. ii. p. 174
seq., 352 seq. It is deeply interesting to observe, not merely that
the difficulties concerning Providence felt by Job refer to the very
subjects which painfully perplex the modern mind, but also that the
friends of Job exhibit the instinctive tendency which is observed in
modern times to denounce his doubt as sin, not less than to
attribute his trials to evil as the direct cause. These two books of
Scripture, together with the seventy-third Psalm, have an increasing
religious importance as the world grows older. “The things written
aforetime were written for our learning.”
68 Attention, for example, should be directed to the efforts of the
mind in emancipating itself (1) from particular forms of political
government, or social arrangements, or artificial laws, in the
struggle against the feudal system, and in the development of
political liberty in modern times, or (2) from traditional systems
of scientific teaching, as the Ptolemaic theory of astronomy, or the
Cartesian of vortices. The absence too of such attempts in the
stagnation of Eastern life is an instructive negative instance for
study.
69 It is proper to express my obligations for a few hints in this part
of the lecture to an able historic sketch of modern German thought,
based on the _Geschichte der neuesten Theologie_ of C. Schwartz, in
the Westminster Review, April 1857 (especially p. 333), The
enumeration of the epochs which follows nevertheless occurred to me
for the most part independently of those suggestions, and had been
previously expressed in public. A classification of a different kind
will be found in _Reimannus Historia Atheismi_, 1725, p. 315.
70 The author (supposed to be Hundeshagen) of _Der Deutsche
Protestantismus_ thus expresses himself (§ 6.): “In the history of
the world there are four successive periods in which open unbelief
and unconcealed enmity to Christianity made the tour in some degree
among the chief nations of Europe. Italy made the beginning in the
fifteenth and sixteenth century; England and France followed in the
seventeenth and eighteenth; the series closed in Germany in the
nineteenth.” The first of the four crises in our text occurred in
the ancient world; the second is mediæval; the third, at the moment
of transition into the modern history, is the Italian crisis of the
quotation just cited; the three others therein named make up the
fourth in our enumeration.
71 On the office of language, and the changes to which it is liable,
consult the chapter on the “Natural History of the variations in the
meaning of terms,” in J. S. Mill’s _Logic_ (vol. ii. b. 4. ch. 5.).
An explanation of many of the terms which occur in the history of
doubt, viz., Deism, Rationalism, &c. will be found in Note 21. at
the end of these Lectures.