A History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century

“The object of the book is philosophical, in the sense now accepted by many and by divergent schools—i.e., it desires to contribute something towards a unification of thought.”

“Such a survey seemed to me indispensable. ...Like every survey it can claim to be merely an approximation. It gives outlines which closer scrutiny will have to correct and fill up.”

“I... decided to complete the first part of the history which deals with scientific thought in two volumes...”

“The two last chapters of this volume, which treat of the astronomical and of the atomic views of Nature, will be followed in the second volume by similar chapters on the mechanical, the physical, the biological, the statistical, and the psychophysical views of Nature... it is my intention to close the first part of my subject by an attempt to trace concisely the development of mathematical thought in this century.”

“One indeed to whom I am... more indebted, perhaps, than to any one else—whom to have known has meant, for many, a revelation of the power of mind and the reality of spirit—is no more: Ernst Curtius. ...But she who was nearest and dearest to him is still with us—a true priestess of the higher life, who has kept burning in the soul of many a youthful friend the spiritual fire when it was in danger of being quenched by the growing materialism of our age.”

“Behind the panorama of external events and changes which history unfolds before our view there lies the hidden world of desires and motives, of passions and energies, which produced or accompanied them; behind the busy scenes of Life lie the inner regions of Thought.”

“Only when facts and events cease to be unconnected, when they appear to us linked together according to some design and purpose, leading us back to some originating cause or forward to some defined end, can we speak of History... and similarly do the hidden motives, desires, and energies which underlie or accompany the external events require to be somehow connected, to present themselves in some order and continuity, before we are able to grasp and record them.”

“Take away thought, and monotony becomes the order.”

“Motion and change would be as monotonous as absolute rest, were they merely to repeat themselves endlessly, did the whole movement not produce something more, and were this something more not greater or better than the beginning. But greater and better are terms which imply comparison by a thinking beholder...”

“The pendulum which swings backwards and forwards in endless monotony, the planet which moves round the sun in unceasing repetition, the atom of matter which vibrates in the same path, have for us no interest beyond the mathematical formulae which govern their motions, and which permit us mentally to reproduce, i.e., to think them.”

“As it was enough to point to the existence of the two worlds of Life and Thought, so it will be enough to notice that thought does not mean merely defined, clear, methodical thought, but likewise the great region of desire, impulse, feeling, and imagination, all of which play, we must admit, a great part in the inner life of the soul as well as in that of the outer world.”

“As every person is his own best biographer, so... every age is... its own best historian.”

“Most of the great historians whom our age has produced will, centuries hence, probably be more interesting as exhibiting special methods of research, special views... than as faithful and reliable chroniclers of events; and the objectivity on which some of them pride themselves will be looked upon not as freedom from, but as unconsciousness on their part, of the preconceived notions which have governed them.”

“But where the facts recorded and the mind which records them both belong to the same age, we have a double testimony regarding that age.”

“Historians like Thucydides, Tacitus, and Machiavelli are looked upon as perfect models in the art of writing history, and the memoirs of many modern statesmen are more lastingly valuable than the more elaborate and connected narratives of remote and secluded scholars.”

“This large body of forgotten thought has nevertheless been... the great propelling force which, stored up, awaits the time and aid of individual talent or genius to set it free.”

“Philosophers tell us of the wastefulness of organic life, of the thousands of germs which perish, of the huge volume of seed scattered uselessly. A similar fate seems to fall on the larger portion of intellectual and moral effort; but here a deeper conviction tells us that it is not the sacrifice but the cooperation of the many which makes the few succeed, that excellence is the prize of united effort, that many must run so that one may reach a higher goal.”

“We who live in the expectation of the light which is to come, surrounded by the shadows, difficulties, and obstacles; we who belong to the army, and are not leaders, who live in, not after, the fight,—we claim to be better able to tell the tale of endless hopes and endeavours, of efforts common to many, of the hidden intellectual and moral work of our age.”

“Of European thought itself I am forced to select... only the central portion the thought embodied in French, German, and English Literature. ...languages unknown and interests foreign to me have made it impossible to identify myself ever so superficially with the new life that is contained in them.”

“At the end of the century no extension or analogue of the Newtonian gravitation formula has been generally accepted, and it still stands there as almost the only firmly established mathematical relation, expressive of a property of all matter, to which the progress of more than two centuries has added nothing, from which it has taken nothing away.”

“Although no mathematical relation equal in value and definiteness to the gravitation formula marks the introduction of the Atomic theory in Chemistry, it nevertheless owes its success to similar qualities—viz., to the fact that it led natural philosophers to make definite measurements, and put exact research in the place of vague reasoning.”

“In the study of inanimate nature, astronomy—the mechanics of the heavens—deals with the simplest relations; chemistry—the science of the changes which bodies undergo when being combined or separated—deals with the most complicated side of reality. Physics occupy an intermediate position, and thus we can also trace in the history of physical research the twofold influence of the astronomical method of inquiry on one side, and the chemical on the other.”

“Jeremias Benjamin Richter—a name possessed of no popular celebrity—published in 1792 to 1794, in three parts, his "Stœchiometry," or the art of measuring chemical elements. From his data, Fischer calculated in 1802 the first table of chemical equivalents, taking sulphuric acid as the standard with the figure 1000.”

“Berzelius, ...by a great number of very accurate determinations confirmed inductively the correctness of Dalton's theory. And even more important than the confirmation of the theory was the great harvest of actual knowledge of the things and processes of nature which was collaterally gathered, whilst chemists were trying to prove or to refute existing opinions.”

“The number of elements or simple bodies, which in Lavoisier's time hardly exceeded thirty, increased before the year 1830 to more than double: the number of new compounds, unknown before, has probably never been counted.”

“Nothing can have tended more in this direction than the success of the Newtonian gravitation formula, and of the simple laws of motion, which, at the time of the birth oi modern chemistry, stood firmly established as the key to all problems of physical astronomy. No wonder that men were on the look-out for correspondingly simple—perhaps analogous—relations in the world of molecular phenomena.”

“The process of substitution led to the conception of "Types," which remained the same whilst the individual compounds varied according to the different elements which were introduced.”

“Whilst the Radicle theory of Berzelius and Liebig sought to simplify the study of chemical compounds by reducing them to a definite number of complex atoms the Type theory of Laurent and Gerhardt sought to attain the same object by establishing a small number of simple formulæ corresponding to well known simple substances under which the vast number of organic compounds could be grouped.”

“In the course of time the conception of types was much changed, and became more and more complicated; it had, however, the effect of finally destroying the binary view of chemical composition, and restoring in its place the older unitary conception.”

“A variety of circumstances combined to bring into prominence, and subsequently into general acceptance, the modern view of the "atomicity" or "valency" of chemical substances—be they elements or compounds. This most recent development of chemical systematisation originated in England, whereas the "radicle" theory belonged more to the German, and the "type" theory to the French, school of chemists.”

“The idea of the "atomicity" and "valency" or saturating capacity of the element of any substance was not possible without the clear notion of the "molecule" as distinct from the "atom." This idea had lain dormant in the now celebrated but long forgotten law of Avogadro, which was established in the year 1811, almost immediately after the appearance of Dalton's atomic theory.”

“We must note the reserve with which some of the greatest representatives of chemical science expressed themselves up to the middle of the century regarding the actual physical existence of those elementary particles [atoms] with which they operated so freely in their formulæ, and which they even represented by balls and coloured discs in their demonstrations.”