8 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



e. In studying the history of other civilisations and the 



Stimulus 



fromciassi- growth and diffusion of human culture in other ages and 



caland 



literatures na ti ns > the gaze of many a German thinker was 

 arrested by the greatness of classical literature and the 

 splendour of ancient art. In the latter direction it was 

 notably Winckelmann who led the way and, for a long 

 time, guided German art-criticism. It was he who had 

 so great an influence upon the formation of Lessing's ideas 

 and the earlier views of Goethe, and who gave to classical 

 studies in Germany that artistic and literary colouring 

 which was grievously absent in many of the older 

 grammarians, editors, and commentators. But in the 

 sequel Herder and Goethe did not confine their interests, 

 as did the classical philologists, to an understanding of 

 the models of Greece and Rome, but simultaneously took 

 up with avidity not only the study of Shakespeare and 

 Dante, of English and Italian literature, but also of that 

 of Spain and Portugal, and furthermore of the great newly 

 discovered Eastern world. In fact, the cosmopolitan in- 

 terest in the songs, poetry, and literature of primitive as 

 well as of highly cultured peoples was one, and certainly 

 not the least, among the lasting achievements of the 

 earlier Romantic school. The leaders here were the 

 brothers Schlegel and Ludwig Tieck. 



But there was a third influence which made itself felt 



in the development of German aesthetics an influence 



which did not come from this country, which was indeed 



rather opposed to the manner in which philosophical 



7. problems were treated here. This is the methodical or 



Influence of 



the German systematic tendency of all German thought, which grew 

 system. wUh. the establishment and growth of the German Uni- 



