race a lack of true philosophy, due
to the blighting influence of the eighteenth century skepticism; for,
as the greatest minds, in which Christianity and science are blended,
have agreed--"without some reasonable and due idea of the destiny and
end of man, it is impossible to form just and consistent opinions on
the progress of events, and the development and fortunes of nations.
History stripped of philosophy becomes simply a lifeless heap of
useless materials, without either inward unity, right purpose, or
worthy result; while philosophy severed from history results in a
disturbed existence of different sects, allied to formality."

The originator of English philosophy was John Locke, whose teachings
were closely allied to the sensual philosophy of the French. It
remained for the Scottish school under Thomas Reid to combat both the
sensualistic philosophy of Voltaire and Locke, and the skepticism of
Hume. Reid was a sincere lover of truth, a man of lofty character, and
his philosophy, such as it is, is the purest that can be found, more
akin to the profound reasoning of Plato.

In Italy, during the eighteenth century, the theory that experience is
the only ground of knowledge, as taught by Locke and Condillac, gained
some followers; but none of them were men of any great influence.
Gallupi in the beginning of the nineteenth century endeavored to reform
this philosophy; others took up his work, and the result was a change
of thought similar to that brought about by Reid in England and
Scotland.

The earlier German philosophers were influenced by the grosser forms of
the science, as found in Locke and Helvetius. Leibnitz and Wolf taught
pure Idealism, as did Bishop Berkeley in England. It remained for Kant
to create a new era in modern philosophy. His system vas what has
become known as the Rationalistic, or what we can know by pure reason.
Kant was followed by Lessing, Herder, Hegel, Fichte, and a host of
others.

These German philosophers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
have had a powerful influence in shaping literature in England, France,
Denmark, Sweden and America. The mystic and profound German mind has
often been led astray; but its intellectual strength cannot be
questioned. Schelling was the author of theories in philosophy that
have been adopted and imitated by both Coleridge and Wordsworth, while
Van Hartmann teaches that there is but one last principle of
philosophy, known by Spinoza as sub