SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES 193 



Stand the higher, whether they do so by means of theoretical construction 

 or practical investigation. In general he despises any dealings with matter 

 as such and denies its indestructibility. To him life is a magnificent process 

 of ethical refining; to his mind the development of the individual represents 

 the selfish element, while reproduction, which entails self-sacrifice for the 

 welfare of the race, is the highest element in the organism. He is zealous 

 also for an ideal conception of love and marriage and for that reason dis- 

 approves of Goethe's sensual love-poetry and therewith of all that Goethe 

 did. His theory of disease as self-destruction in the individual is in accord- 

 ance with this, his conception of life. Nevertheless, he by no means dis- 

 approved of practical medical education, though he himself had little to 

 do with it, owing to bodily clumsiness, and, as he himself declared, conse- 

 quent laziness. As will have been seen from the above, his biological theory 

 was no less inconsistent with true nature than Schelling's, but at any rate 

 it had the advantage of assuming as its chief mission the improvement of 

 morals, which Schelling's certainly did not. It was in any case Hwasser's 

 personality that exercised the best influence; it is mostly for this that he is 

 remembered today. 



In Finland Hwasser's natural philosophy was maintained after his death 

 by his faithful friend and pupil Immanuel Ilmoni (1797-185 6), who shared 

 his ideas and warmly defended them. With the passing of these two men 

 natural philosophy disappears from the universities of the North, where, as 

 a matter of fact, it had never made the same progress that it had done in Ger- 

 many; biology was mostly carried on throughout the natural-philosophical 

 period on Linnasn principles; moreover, men like Berzelius and Anders 

 Retzius were working for exact natural research, and natural philosophy 

 had no rivals in Scandinavia to compete with them. 



2.. England and France 



Cultural development in ivestern Europe 

 Natural philosophy has by no means played the same part in the two lands 

 of culture in western Europe as it did in Germany. The reason for this may 

 be sought ultimately in the national character of their peoples, Englishmen 

 and Frenchmen always showing themselves less speculative and more in- 

 clined to direct their energies towards practical aims than the Germans. 

 And indeed practical functions were far more attainable in those uniformly 

 governed and well-organized western-European kingdoms than in the di- 

 vided and politically disillusioned country of Germany. The reaction against 

 the opinions of the eighteenth century sought and found its expression, both in 

 England and France, in politics, both of Church and State, and in literature. 



