354 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



Through the transportation of Kantian ideas into this 

 centre the fate of the new doctrine was for long decided 

 in advance. The exclusively critical character which the 

 titles of Kant's larger works perhaps unduly emphasised, 

 had, under the influence of a great national, educational, 

 and literary movement, soon to be abandoned or left to 

 secluded thinkers. The doctrine had on the other side to 

 contribute what it could to that movement itself, which, 

 as I have had frequent opportunity to remark, was 

 destined to bring about nothing less than the poetical, 

 literary, artistic, and, in the sequel, the political elevation 

 and regeneration of the German nation. That in the 

 midst of such interests the problem of knowledge would 

 occupy an important position was just as clear as it was 

 certain that this problem would not be conceived in a 



taken place in the small Duchy, 

 which comprised only 750 square 

 miles. Three years after the 

 arrival of Wieland the regency had 

 been terminated by the accession 

 of the young Duke, Karl August, 

 who having, in the company of 

 his military tutor, Knebel, a man 

 with many literary and intellectual 

 interests, become acquainted with 

 Goethe at Frankfort, invited the 

 latter to Weimar offering him 

 a high position in his Adminis- 

 trative Council. Not long after 

 this he had, at Goethe's suggestion, 

 appointed Herder to nil the highest 

 clerical position in the country, 

 admiring in him a liberal and 

 spiritual theologian, qualified to 

 oppose the prevailing narrow ortho- 

 doxy. The University of Jena 

 flourished likewise under this en- 

 lightened government, and counted 

 among its professors many eminent 

 scholars and naturalists. Among 

 these were Schiitz and Hufeland, 

 who, as editors of a renowned 



literary paper, represented, as did 

 Wieland in a different way, the 

 new literary spirit in opposition to 

 the prosaic 'Aufklarung' which 

 had its centre in Berlin. As 

 Goethe wrote to Eckermann, the 

 Duke " possessed the talent to take 

 the measure of different minds and 

 characters, and to assign to each its 

 place." And as the latest bio- 

 grapher of Goethe, A. Bielschowsky, 

 says, " By means of this great gift, 

 and with his generous temperament 

 and his rich talents, he not only 

 succeeded in gathering around him 

 the first minds of the nation, but, 

 what was much more, he retained 

 them" (voL L, 7th ed., 1905, p. 

 276). For the third time, as 

 Julian Schmidt says, "after 1517 

 (Luther) and 1675 (Leibniz), one 

 of the small States monopolised the 

 intellectual movement in Germany 

 and gave to it a special character " 

 (' Geschichte der Deutechen Litter- 

 atur,' vol. iL, 1886, p. 240). 



