NORTHCOTE

northcote, viscount st cyres (1869- ), was educated at eton and merton college oxford. after taking a 1st class in history, he was elected a senior student of christ church, where he resided for a while as tutor and lecturer. his interest in the development of religious thought led him to devote himself specially to the history of the roman catholic church in the 17th century, the first-fruits of which was his _francois de fenelon_ (london, 1901); eight years later he published his _pascal_ (ib. 1909). the second son of the 1st earl of iddesleigh, stafford henry northcote, 1st baron northcote (b. 1846), was educated at eton and at merton college, oxford. he became a clerk in the foreign office in 1868, acted as private secretary to lord salisbury, and was attached to the embassy at constantinople from 1876 to 1877. from 1877 to 1880 he was secretary to the chancellor of the exchequer, was financial secretary to the war office from 1885 to 1886, surveyor-general of ordnance, 1886 to 1887, and charity commissioner, 1891 to 1892. in 1887 he was created a baronet. in 1880 he was elected m.p. for exeter as a conservative, and retained the seat until 1899, when he was appointed governor of bombay (1899-1903), being created a peer in 1900. lord northcote was appointed governor-general of the commonwealth of australia in 1903, and held this post till 1908. he married in 1873 alice, adopted daughter of the 1st lord mount stephen. idea (gr. [greek: idea], connected with [greek: idein], to see; cf. lat. _species_ from _specere_, to look at), a term used both popularly and in philosophical terminology with the general sense of "mental picture." to have no _idea_ how a thing happened is to be without a mental picture of an occurrence. in this general sense it is synonymous with concept (q.v.) in its popular usage. in philosophy the term "idea" is common to all languages and periods, but there is scarcely any term which has been used with so many different shades of meaning. plato used it in the sphere of metaphysics for the eternally existing reality, the archetype, of which the objects of sense are more or less imperfect copies. chairs may be of different forms, sizes, colours and so forth, but "laid up in the mind of god" there is the one permanent _idea_ or type, of which the many physical chairs are derived with various degrees of imperfection. from this doctrine it follows that these _ideas_ are the sole reality (see further idealism); in opposition to it are the empirical thinkers of all time who find reality in particular physical objects (see