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LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1871. 



pleted by the publication of the third volume, 

 and an interesting addition has been made to 

 it by the appearance of the long-promised life 

 of his first wife, Caroline, the divorced wife of 

 A. W. Schlegel. 



It is a significant indication of the present 

 state of philosophy in Germany, that, in place 

 of philosophical systems, biographies of phi- 

 losophers and of their wives too appear. Of 

 wives of thinkers of the first rank with the 

 exception of the old bachelors Kant and 

 Schopenhauer they all married, and happily, 

 too the only one who survives is the widow 

 of Herbart, an English lady, now in her eigh- 

 tieth year, who lives at Konigsberg. Herbart, 

 the founder of a realistic school that emanated 

 from Kant, and who is at present numerously 

 represented, is of all German thinkers the one 

 that has hitherto been least known abroad, 

 although he is is the one who has most 

 affinity to English thought, being in psycholo- 

 gy allied to Locke, in ethics to Clarke and 

 Adam Smith, and basing his metaphysics on 

 experience. His works, which his pupils have 

 published in twelve handsome volumes, have 

 received a considerable addition, through the 

 appearance, at Leipsic, of his "Remains," ed- 

 ited by Ziller. They contain his letters and 

 autobiographical passages. Frauenstadt has 

 compiled, in two volumes, a special lexicon to 

 Schopenhauer, the other Kantian realist. 

 Among independent contributions to philoso- 

 phy, we may mention Hartmann's keen criti- 

 cism of Kant's " Ding an Sich," and Michaalis's 

 " Kant before and after 1770." Both belong 

 to the set of publications that have been called 

 forth by the dispute which has arisen between 

 Kuno Fisher and Trendeleuburg as to the 

 idealistic or realistic character of Kant's tran- 

 scendental aesthetic. At the same time, the 

 revival of Berkeley's idealism in England has 

 provoked a similar movement in Germany. 

 Robert Zimmermann has treated of " Kant's 

 Love of Mathematics," and " Kant's Refutation 

 of Berkeley's Idealism," while an Englishman, 

 Edmund Montgomery, has written in German 

 a criticism of " Kant's Theory of Cognition, 

 from the Empirical Stand-point." Finally, 

 " Hartmann's Philosophy of the Unknown " 

 has provoked a reply in German, from a Ger- 

 man-American in New York. The subtle 

 Fortlage, of Jena, has collected his philosophi- 

 cal writings, arid Trendelenburg, who is as 

 celebrated for the elegance of his style as for 

 the acuteness of his reasoning, has this year 

 published a third edition of his " Logical In- 

 quiries," in which he has added a refutation 

 of the Darwinian Theory. " The Philosophic 

 Questions of the Day," by Bona Meyer, of 

 Bonn, shows that the tendency of contem- 

 porary philosophy is to recur to Kant. The 

 book is intended to inform educated readers 

 of the aims of philosophy. 



It is, perhaps, best to include under the 

 head of philosophy "The Religion of the 

 Spirit." Although it consists of religious 



poems, it is the last work of Melchior Meyer, 

 who has died since its publication. 



Two works on subjects nearly allied to phi- 

 losophy have been continued in the present 

 year, and one of them has been brought to a 

 conclusion. The fourth volume of M. Carrier's 

 well-known work, " Art as a Branch of the 

 History of Culture," has appeared, and treats 

 of the Renaissance and the age of the Refor- 

 mation. Hettner, who, in the previous por- 

 tions of his " History of the Literature of the 

 Eighteenth Century," had given a somewhat 

 cursory sketch of French and English litera- 

 ture, has now presented us with a much more 

 careful account of German literature down to 

 the time of Goethe and Schiller. After the 

 laborious investigations of Klemm and the 

 works of Buckle, Mr. Lecky, and Dr. Draper, 

 Henne van Rhyn's " History of Modern Cul- 

 ture, from the Revival of Learning down to 

 the Present Day," is not of much value, and 

 is more remarkable for radicalism than inde- 

 pendent research. Much more light is thrown 

 on the development of Germany, and more 

 especially of Prussia, by an unpretending little 

 volume, Ferdinand Ranke's biography of a 

 plain German school-master, August Meinecke, 

 who was rector of the Joachimthal Gymna- 

 sium, at Berlin. People have said, with ob- 

 vious exaggeration, that the Prussian school- 

 masters won the battles of Metz and Sedan ; 

 but one understands what they mean when 

 one reads the account of this man, who posi- 

 tively glowed with enthusiasm for his calling, 

 and was incessantly occupied in training his 

 pupils, lovingly yet strictly, in the study of 

 the spirit, not of the mere words, of the clas- 

 sical authors. The training given in the Prus- 

 sian schools prepares for the discipline of the 

 camp; the inculcation of accurate habits of 

 thought for ability in action. 



Leopold Ranke, the Nestor and Coryphaeus 

 of diplomatic annals, has this year published 

 the first volume of his work, "The German 

 Powers and the League of Princes." The 

 only connecting link between this work and 

 recent events lies in the fact that, by the for- 

 mation of the league against Joseph II., Fred- 

 erick the Great began the movement for the 

 exclusion of Austria from Germany, which his 

 grand-nephew has finally completed. But 

 Prussian historians have no claim to having 

 contributed, even in the smallest degree, to 

 bringing about the present condition of Ger- 

 many. The "German Speeches " of one of 

 the best of them, Ranke's celebrated pupil, 

 Wilhelm Giesebrecht, of Munich, are taken up 

 with very out-of-the-way subjects, such as the 

 development of German historiography, the 

 first German missionary in Prussia, etc. Still 

 the reader instinctively feels that they are all 

 pervaded by the idea of German unity, that 

 idea which the thinkers, poets, and historians 

 of the nation joined in proclaiming, and which 

 was at last realized on the French battle-fields. 



The most remarkable book of the year 



