OF THE SPIRIT. 307 



the Moravian Brotherhood, who kept themselves aloof 

 from the ecclesiastical conflicts of the day and cultivated 

 a religious life in some respects not unlike that 

 peculiar to the Society of Friends in this country ; 

 differing, however, from the latter inasmuch as they 

 did not take a similar prominent part in any great 

 philanthropic movements such as, in this country, began 

 with the great work of William Penn in the middle of 

 the seventeenth century. The narrowness of this secluded 

 and sectarian life drove Schleiermacher away from the 

 Brotherhood for which he, nevertheless, retained a life- 

 long affection. From it he was thrown into the midst 

 of the spirit of enlightenment, at a moment when it 

 was being deepened and idealised by the original poetical 

 genius of the age as well as by the stirring effect of 

 Kant's philosophy ; at the same time he came under the 

 influence of the classical and critical spirit as it lived 

 in its great representative F. A. Wolf. Through Jacobi 

 he became acquainted with the writings of Spinoza as 

 he had become acquainted, through Wolf, with those of 

 Plato. In both he admired that higher mysticism which 

 was so different from the narrow inwardness of the 

 Brotherhood. But he was not attracted so much by 

 the logical as by the emotional pantheism of Spinoza. 

 Influenced by him, he introduced into the philosophy 

 of religion the idea that one of the sources and char- 

 acteristics of religious inspiration is the feeling of one- 

 ness between the Individual and the All, what more 

 recently has been termed " cosmic emotion " ; the con- 

 viction, which has lived in some of the foremost teachers 

 of mankind, that their individual and subjective self 



