PRAGMATISM    OF   THE   MIDDLE   AGES      183

conflict  between  philosophy  and  life  was  slower  in
appearing.  And  when  it  did  appear  it  was  upon
philosophic  ground.  Leibnitz  and  Wolf  are  the  two
great  names  of  German  philosophy  in  the  eighteenth
century.  Leibnitz  rose  into  the  highest  speculations
in  pure  mathematics,  and  his  metaphysical  specula-
tions are,  at  first,  of  a  character  purely  intellectual.
But  he  forced  himself  to  bend  the  latter  to  the  exi-
gencies of  a  practical  philosophy,  and  wrote  his
pragmatic  Theodicy,  a  generous  attempt,  perhaps,
but  which  wrought  more  evil  than  good  to  the  cause ;
for  it  inspired  in  Voltaire  his  tragically  witty  Can-
dide.  That  the  Theodicy  was  saluted  as  a  great
work  in  Germany  tells  us  much  of  the  status  of
mind  in  that  country;  evidently  that  sort  of  phi-
losophy was  wanted  there.  But  the  typical  popular
thinker  of  Germany  was  Wolf.  He  conceived  a
philosophy  which  at  the  very  outset  should  satisfy
at  once  theoretical  aspirations  and  practical  aspira-
tion, and  show  how  we  do  not  wish  to  dispense  with
the  former  and  ought  not  to  dispense  with  the
latter.  Wolf  places  them  calmly  in  juxtaposition
without  over  much  troubling  himself  whether  they
work  well  in  harness  or  not.  Philosophy  is  the  sci-
ence of  the  possible,  —  of  the  possible  ( i )  in  the
domain  of  the  intellect;  that  is,  metaphysics  (ontol^
ogy,  cosmology,  psychology,  and  natural  theology)  ;
and  (2)  in  the  domain  of  the  will;  that  is,  practical
philosophy  (ethics,  political  economy,  politics).
