INTRODUCTORY. 



75 



little known, till the death of the philosopher in 1860 

 drew the attention of wider circles to the originality of 

 his writings. Within a few years Schopenhauer became 

 the most popular philosopher in Germany. The reasons 

 for this are not difficult to understand. After Kant had 

 passed away, the more ambitious of his followers had 

 proclaimed in various promising announcements the ad- 

 vent of a new era of thought which should do justice to 

 the high aspirations of the nation. These had found 

 expression in a literature which has since become classical, 

 in a revival of art and in all the ideals which produced 

 and accompanied the battle for freedom and the Anti- 

 Napoleonic Revolution in Europe. Philosophy was to do 

 justice to the logical emancipation of the older Rational- 

 ism and the newer Criticism, as much as to the inwardness 

 of the older Mysticism and the more recent spiritualism 

 of the Romantic School. It was to unite Science, Art, 

 and Religion, the intellectual and spiritual interests, into 

 one comprehensive view. The age was one of hopefulness 

 and expectancy, of a high optimism, of ideals and striv- 

 ings. The youth of Germany and the thoughtful public 

 listened with enthusiasm and confidence to dozens of 

 academic lecturers. It was the same age which witnessed, 

 besides the political liberation of Germany, one other 



philosophical phenomenon of the 

 day, being discussed in Reviews 

 and pamphlets both in Germany 

 and abroad. Since that time, and 

 still more after the appearance of 

 v. Hartmann's 'Philosophy of the 

 Unconscious' (1st ed. 1869), the 

 literature on Schopenhauer has 

 grown to enormous dimensions, as 

 can be seen from Ueberweg's 

 Handbook (vol. iv.), where also his 



influence in other countries is re- 

 ferred to. In England translations 

 have appeared of his principal work 

 by Haldane and Kemp (3 vols. 

 1883-86), and of his Essays by T. 

 B. Saunders (1891). Prof. Sully 

 treats of him at length in his 

 ' History of Pessimism ' (1877), and 

 Mr Thos. Whittaker has recently 

 published a concise and spirited 

 sketch of his Philosophy (1909). 



