172 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



mould from that of Leibniz, he resembled him more 

 than any other modern thinker did in occupying a 

 central position, living in touch with many and opposite 

 schools of thought. Thus he was unique also in being 

 a representative alike of philosophy and theology. He 

 was one of the first to study critically the writings of 

 the ancient philosophers, and he was one of the founders 

 of Biblical criticism. 1 With Fichte and Schelling he 

 came under the influence of Spinoza no less than under 

 that of Kant and Plato. He was brought up in, and 

 remained in touch with, that peculiar spiritual form 

 of Christian belief and religious life which in Germany 

 was confined to some of the smaller and secluded sects 

 within the Protestant Church. 2 He did not, like 

 Fichte and others 3 before and after step out of 

 theology into philosophy ; he remained all through his 

 life an active religious teacher, a famous preacher, 



1 See supra, vol. iii. p. 162. 



8 All the many influences which 

 contributed to develop the indi- 

 viduality, originality, and many- 

 sidedness of Schleiermacher's lit- 

 erary character and activity, are 

 brought out in a masterly man- 

 ner in Wilhelm Dilthey's ' Leben 

 Schleiermachers,' a unique work, 

 unparalleled, so far as I know, in 

 any literature ancient or modern, 

 and the only defect of which is 

 that it has not been completed ; 

 alongside of it should be consulted 

 the valuable account of Schleier- 

 macher by the same author in the 

 'Dictionary of German National 

 Biography.' The only volume 

 which has appeared of the larger 

 work, and which is now unprocur- 

 able, takes us into the first years 

 of the nineteenth century and 

 deals fully with Schleiermacher's 



childhood and youth, the religious 

 atmosphere in which he was 

 brought up, both in his family 

 and in the Moravian Brotherhood, 

 and then deals with the period 

 of the gradual formation of his 

 philosophical creed (1796 - 1802). 

 Of literary productions it analyses 

 exhaustively the 'Addresses on 

 Religion,' the ' Monologues,' and 

 the ' Letters ' on Fr. Schlegel's 

 unfortunate and notorious novel 

 ' Lucinde. ' 



3 Such as Reinhold, Strauss, 

 Zeller, Leopold Schmidt (1808- 

 1869, Archbishop - elect of Mainz, 

 but repudiated by the Roman See, 

 afterwards Prof, of Philosophy at 

 Giessen), Wilhelm Bender (1845- 

 1901, author of an excellent work 

 on 'The Theology of Schleier- 

 macher,' latterly Prof, of Philo- 

 sophy at Bonn), and others. 



