[33] Charles Secretan (1815-1895), a Swiss thinker with whom Renouvier had interesting correspondence. His _Philosophie de la Liberté_ appeared in 1848-1849, followed by other works on religious philosophy. Pillon wrote a monograph upon him.
After surveying the currents of thought up to 1867 Ravaisson not only summed up in his concluding pages the elements of his own philosophy, but he ventured to assume the role of prophet. “Many signs permit us to foresee in the near future a philosophical epoch of which the general character will be the predominance of what may be called spiritualistic realism or positivism, having as generating principle the consciousness which the mind has of itself as an existence recognised as being the source and support of every other existence, being none other than its action.”[34] His prophecy has been fulfilled in the work of Lachelier, Guyau, Fouillée, Boutroux, Bergson, Blondel and Weber.
After Ravaisson the spiritualist philosophy found expression in the work of Lachelier (1832-1918), a thinker whose importance and whose influence are both quite out of proportion to the small amount which he has written.[36] A brilliant thesis of only one hundred pages, _Du Fondement de l’Induction_, sustained in 1871, together with a little study on the Syllogism and a highly important article on _Psychologie et Métaphysique_, contributed to the _Revue philosophique_ in May of 1885, constitute practically all his written work.[37] It was orally that he made his influence felt; by his teaching at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (1864-1875) he made a profound impression upon the youth of the University and the Ecole by the dignity and richness of his thought, as well as by its thoroughness.
[36] Dr. Merz, in his admirable _History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century_, is wrong in regard to Lachelier’s dates; he confuses his resignation of professorship (1875) with his death. This, however, did not occur until as late as 1918. See the references in Mertz, vol. iii., p. 620, and vol. iv., p. 217.
[37] The thesis and the article have been published together by Alcan, accompanied by notes on Pascal’s Wager. The _Etude sur le Syllogisme_ also forms a volume in Alcan’s _Bibliothèque de Philosophie contemporaine_.