GROWTH AND DIFFUSION OF CRITICAL SPIRIT. 115 



the historical took the place of the analytical treatment. 

 In the desire for something freer, better, and greater, 

 it was more natural to turn to the long neglected but 

 recently discovered models of ancient and modern times 

 than to develop something entirely original and novel. 

 For it must not be forgotten that, whilst Lessing and 

 Kant were the two great representatives of the critical 

 spirit in the wider sense of the word, they were not 

 essentially negative minds, and that they opposed the 

 purely sceptical and destructive movement of which 

 Voltaire in France was the most brilliant and popular 

 exponent. Their object was not to destroy but to build 

 up, to lead taste into new channels and to establish 

 philosophy upon a firmer foundation ; thus they were 

 more attracted by Rousseau, his gospel of nature and 

 his educational ideals, than by Voltaire, whose flippancy 

 and artificiality were opposed to their innermost con- 

 victions. In fact, they had definite ideals. They 

 initiated what we may call the age of ideals, which 

 governed the German mind for the greater part of a 

 century. It may have been difficult at that time to 

 express in words what these ideals really consisted in, 

 and more easy for their upholders to say what they 

 were not, what they opposed and disapproved of. But 

 Lessing and Kant had a strong faith in the existence 

 of eternal standards of the true, the beautiful, and the 

 good, and they strove for a general recognition and 

 appreciation of them. 



If, in the light of history and subsequent events, we 23. 



. , Ideal of 



ask ourselves the question what this ideal which they humanity: 



its phases. 



were striving after consisted in, we meet with an 



