as enough to sweep away superstition, priestcraft, and
despotism, and that no constructive process was necessary. They had
not perceived the necessity of social discipline, of loyalty to
rulers, or of patriotic feeling among the subjects. They had,
therefore, entirely failed to recognise the historical value of old
creeds and institutions, and had tried to remodel society 'without the
binding forces which hold society together.'[637] Hence, too, the
_philosophes_ came to despise history; and D'Alembert is said to have
wished that all record of past events could be blotted out. Their
theory, in its popular version at least, came to be that states and
churches had been got up 'for the sole purpose of picking people's
pockets.'[638] This had become incredible to any intelligent reasoner,
and any Tory could prove that there was something good in the past.
The peculiarity of the 'Germano-Coleridgian' school was that they saw
beyond the immediate controversy. They were the first to inquire with
any power into 'the inductive laws of the existence and growth of
human society'; the first to recognise the importance of the great
constructive principles; and the first to produce not a piece of party
advocacy, but 'a philosophy of society in the only form in which it is
yet possible, that of a philosophy of history.' Hence arose that
'series of great writers and thinkers, from Herder to Michelet,' who
have given to past history an intelligible place in the gradual
evolution of humanity.[639] This very forcible passage is interesting
in regard to Mill, and shows a very clear perception of some defects
in his own philosophy. It also raises an important question.

Accepting Mill's view, it is remarkable that the great error of his
own school, which professed to be based upon experience, was the
rejection of history; and the great merit of the _a priori_ and
'intuitionist' school was precisely their insistence upon history. To
this I shall have to return hereafter. Meanwhile, Mill proceeds to
show how Coleridge, by arguing from the 'idea' of church and state,
had at least recognised the necessity of showing that political and
social institutions must have a sufficient reason, and be justified by
something more than mere obstinate prejudice. Men like Pitt and Sir
Robert Peel, if they accepted Coleridge's support, would have to alter
their whole position. Coleridge's defence of his ideal church was at
once the severest satire upon the ex