to everything earthly, and naught was of value in comparison with man’s transcendent destiny.  Mediaeval philosophy is in its aims un-national, cosmopolitan, catholic; it uses the Latin of the schools, it seeks adherents in every land, it finds everywhere productive spirits whose labors in its service remain unaffected by their national peculiarities.  The modern period returns to the nationalism of antiquity, but does not relinquish the advantage gained by the extension of mediaeval thought to the whole civilized world.  The roots of modern philosophy are sunk deep in the fruitful soil of nationality, while the top of the tree spreads itself far beyond national limitations.  It is national and cosmopolitan together; it is international as the common property of the various peoples, which exchange their philosophical gifts through an active commerce of ideas.  Latin is often retained for use abroad, as the universal language of savants, but many a work is first published in the mother-tongue—­and thought in it.  Thus it becomes possible for the ideas of the wise to gain an entrance into the consciousness of the people, from whose spirit they have really sprung, and to become a power beyond the circle of the learned public.  Philosophy as illumination, as a factor in general culture, is an exclusively modern phenomenon.  In this speculative intercourse of nations, however, the French, the English, and the Germans are most involved, both as producers and consumers.  France gives the initiative (in Descartes), then England assumes the leadership (in Locke), with Leibnitz and Kant the hegemony passes over to Germany.  Besides these powers, Italy takes an eager part in the production of philosophical ideas in the period of ferment before Descartes.  Each of these nations contributes elements to the total result which it alone is in a position to furnish, and each is rewarded by gifts in return which it would be incapable of producing out of its own store.  This international exchange of ideas, in which each gives and each receives, and the fact that the chief modern thinkers, especially in the earlier half of the era, prior to Kant, are in great part not philosophers by profession but soldiers, statesmen, physicians, as well as natural scientists, historians, and priests, give modern philosophy an unprofessional, worldly appearance, in striking contrast to the clerical character of mediaeval, and the prophetic character of ancient thinking.

Germany, England, and France claim the honor of having produced the first modern philosopher, presenting Nicolas of Cusa, Bacon of Verulam, and Rene Descartes as their candidates, while Hobbes, Bruno, and Montaigne have received only scattered votes.  The claim of England is the weakest of all, for, without intending to diminish Bacon’s importance, it may be said that the programme which he develops—­and in essence his philosophy is nothing more—­was, in its leading principles, not first announced by him,