at loss is already perceived, and
Hegel's value in the realm of the Philosophy of History is being
rediscovered. Men are more and more feeling the necessity of conceding a
validity and objectivity to the concepts of History. The work of the
late Professor Dilthey[79] in this respect is of great importance, and
has strong affinities with Eucken's teaching on the same subject. But
Dilthey's objectivity and validity stopped short of religion in the
sense in which religion is presented by Eucken. Dilthey gave the norms
of History a transcendental objectivity and considered them sufficient
for man. But Eucken, as already stated, while granting all this and even
insisting upon it, finds that the norms of History do not include the
whole that human nature needs. The "next step" has to be taken whereby a
reality is revealed beyond the confines of the best collective
experiences of the human race. Once more, we are landed in the
conception of the Godhead. The step became inevitable, because the best
[p.220] historical concepts, in their totality, pointed to something
still beyond themselves.

During the past few years Eucken has devoted much attention to the
Life-system presented in _Pragmatism_. He is alive to the value of much
of the work of the late Professor William James and of Dr F.C.S.
Schiller. He feels that Absolute Idealism is too abstract and too remote
from life to move the human will. It is too much like placing a man
before a mountain, and asking him to remove it. The very magnitude of
the object weakens instead of strengthening the will. Pragmatism has the
merit of insisting that the task be done piecemeal, so that man may not
lose heart at the very outset. And some kind of goal is present in
Pragmatism. But Eucken's main objection to Pragmatism is that, however
adequate it may be at the beginning of the enterprise, it will tend, as
time passes, to turn man in the direction of the line of least
resistance, and so be degraded to the level of the ordinary life and its
petty demands.[80] His Activism is entirely different from James's
Pragmatism. James depended too much upon the "span of the moment" and
its immediate experience. There is in this "span" often no cosmic
conviction present in consciousness to proclaim that the action is
[p.221] "worth while" at all costs. While constantly demanding the need
of effort in order to experience the deeper potencies of spiritual life,
Eucken insists that such effort can enter