134 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



and the growth of the classical and critical spirit, become 

 loosened or had in many instances faded away. 1 The 

 spirit of Free Inquiry, which in this country had 

 shown itself hesitatingly and sporadically, had super- 

 vened and become the leading and stimulating agency 

 in German thought. It formed, however, quite as 

 much a contrast to the spirit of scepticism, indiffer- 

 ence, and flippancy, which characterised the writings of 

 many of the foremost thinkers in France, before and 

 at the time of the Eevolution. It assimilated the 

 hopeful sentimentalism of Eousseau, from which it 

 derived, to a large extent, the interest and belief in a 

 universal popular education based upon the foundation 

 of a plain and simple Christian morality. In fact the 

 educational movement, as I have had repeated occasion 

 to explain, in its two independent branches of popular 

 and academic education, was the principal direction in 

 which the new spirit of faith and hope in human 

 progress found an outlet. We must, however, not 



1 An interesting account of the 

 uncertain position taken up by 

 thinking members of a younger 

 society towards religious subjects 

 in the end of the third quarter of 

 the eighteenth century is given 

 by Goethe in the eighth book of 

 ' Dichtung und Wahrheit,' which 

 deals with his student days in 

 Leipsic : " The Christian religion," 

 he tells us, " oscillated between its 

 own historical positivism and a 

 pure Deism which, based upon 

 morality, should on its part form 

 a foundation for the same. The 

 difference of character and opinion 

 showed itself here in infinite grada- 

 tions, especially as a further differ- 

 ence intruded as to the question : 



What part reason, on the one side, 

 and sentiment on the other, could 

 and ought to have in such convic- 

 tions ? Some very intelligent and 

 brilliant men appeared, in this 

 respect, like butterflies which, quite 

 oblivious of their chrysalis state, 

 throw away the covering in which 

 they have grown to their organic 

 maturity. Others, more faithful 

 and more modest, could be compared 

 with flowers which, though develop- 

 ing into beautiful blossoms, do not 

 leave the root nor separate them- 

 selves from the mother stem, but 

 rather through this connection 

 bring the hoped-for fruit to ripe- 

 ness." (Weimar ed., vol. 27, 

 p. 192.) 



