ABSTRACT
G. W. F. Hegel’s initial reception in Britain resembles that of Immanuel Kant insofar as both philosophers underwent a lengthy period of being treated with either blank indifference or irritated perplexity – added to which in Hegel’s case was the prejudicial suspicion that something atheistic was afoot. Hegelianism “may charm the mind that loves to rationalize upon every religious doctrine,” yet “it can assuredly give but little consolation to the heart that is yearning with earnest longings after holiness and immortality. J. D. Morell’s Philosophical Fragments were published in 1878 and a Manual of the History of Philosophy in 1884, which treats of the Left, Right and Centre Hegelians rather than of Hegel himself. Lewes appropriated two Hegelian ideas: that of the spirit of the age, of which art is a principal manifestation; and that of the purely explanatory role of any philosophical activity, such as aesthetics.
