310 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



It . was characteristic of the age that witnessed 

 the publication of Schleiermacher's first deliverances, 

 and especially of the surroundings in which he lived, 

 that the sesthetical interpretation should have found 

 .earlier and more general recognition, and this in two 

 distinct forms : first, in that cosmic pantheism which 

 we find permeating the poetical and prose works of 

 Goethe during that period and which formed the funda- 

 mental view in Schelling's earlier ' Philosophy of 



347). In a recent, very inter- 

 esting, study of the early develop- 

 ment of Fichte, Schelling, and 

 Schleiermacher ('Vom Werden 

 dreier Denker,' 1904), E. Fuchs 

 enters very fully into the ques- 

 tion of the occasion which the 

 ' Atheismusstreit ' of Fichte gave 

 Schleiermacher for the production 

 of his ' Addresses. ' This celebrated 

 controversy, which, brought about 

 Fichte's removal from Jena to 

 Berlin, turned upon the question, 

 forced upon thinkers through the 

 study of Spinoza, whether Spinoz- 

 ism and the religious conceptions 

 contained therein admitted of the 

 belief in a personal Deity as dis- 

 tinguished from a Divine Order. 

 Fichte had, in one phase of his 

 development, taken up the posi- 

 tion that the belief in a Divine 

 i.e., a moral Order, was the ne- 

 cessary but also the sufficient 

 foundation of religion, and this 

 had led to his being accused of 

 atheism. This occurrence threw 

 into the philosophical world a 

 great and stirring subject of dis- 

 cussion : ' ' Whilst many drew back 

 from Fichte, a hitherto unknown 

 man stood courageously with him. 

 True, the little book appeared anon- 

 ymously, . . . but its author could 

 not and did not remain hidden. This 

 valiant one was Schleiermacher, 

 then a preacher at the 'ChariteY 



and his book the ' Addresses on 

 Religion.' These are accordingly a 

 document in the ' Atheismusstreit,' 

 and this explains to a large ex- 

 tent why they met with such uni- 

 versal recognition. General at- 

 tention had been created ; but that 

 they had such a remarkable suc- 

 cess, that philosophical and theo- 

 logical thinking, and above all, 

 religious sentiment, were revived 

 through them, that was only possible 

 by reason of their intrinsic value. 

 Through it Schleiermacher became 

 the author whom German thought, 

 in the following years, strove and 

 wrestled to understand. Withhold 

 freedom the little book places itself 

 by the side of Fichte, and this in 

 the name of religion. The very 

 same who profess to defend re- 

 ligion against Fichte in reality 

 spoil and destroy it. They de- 

 fend their religious notions and 

 destroy, through an absolute want 

 of understanding, the roots in the 

 human soul from which they have 

 sprung" (p. 286). And Fuchs 

 goes on to quote that remarkable 

 passage in the Address in which 

 Schleiermacher traces religion back 

 to a presentiment, secret and un- 

 comprehended, in youthful souls, 

 which drives them beyond the 

 riches of this world to seek for 

 the supernatural. 



