204 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



the time of Leibniz, and had been heightened by the 

 productiveness of art and literature during the classical 

 period and the enthusiasm of the anti-Napoleonic revolt, 

 had been followed by widespread discouragement and 

 indifference which prepared many youthful minds for 

 a pessimistic view of life and its goods. This view 

 found a speculative formula and brilliant exposition in 

 the systems of Schopenhauer and von Hartmann. The 

 writings of the former had been before the world for 

 more than forty years. The time seemed now to have 

 arrived for an appreciation of ideas which were quite 

 foreign to the spirit of the classical period, but which 

 were not unfamiliar to the leaders of a section of the 

 opposition literature, such as had sprung up, all over 

 Europe, as a consequence of the Revolution and the 

 subsequent reaction, with the celebrated names of Byron 

 in England, de Musset in France, Leopardi in Italy, 

 and Heinrich Heine in Germany. 



Feuerbach had already clearly recognised that it was 

 the practical and not the metaphysical problem which 

 was most pressing, questions which interested the 

 masses even more than the educated classes. But his 

 whole literary activity moved too much on the purely 

 destructive side and, like a great deal of the literature 

 of the day, was too easily satisfied with mere outlines, 

 with sketchy programmes of the creed of the future, to 

 yield any positive gain. Consistent constructive efforts 

 dealing with the many difficulties in the working out 

 of the various schemes were to be found chiefly among 

 writers who still maintained the ground of traditional 

 belief. Of the latter, who belong mostly to the school 



