316 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



29. 



Neglect of 



macher's 



psychology, 



seemingly so little influence on the course of German 

 speculation. The cause for this seems to me to be two- 

 fold : first, general ; second, personal. 



The general cause may be found in the fact that, 

 under the influence of the poetical genius of the age 

 which found its highest expression in Goethe's and Schil- 

 ler's classical creations, nearly all the leading thinkers 

 of the idealistic school indulged in poetical and rhetori- 

 cal writing, frequently also in figurative and oracular 

 language, that the message which they had to deliver 

 presented itself, not in the sober form of methodical 

 thought, but more frequently in the form of aphorisms, 

 rhapsodies, and appeals to the imagination. This form of 

 expression had, under the necessities of academic teach- 

 ing, to be replaced by, or interpreted in, sober and 

 logical prose ; it had to accommodate itself to the needs 

 of the student and the demands of the scholar ; it had 

 to formulate and to deal with special defined problems 

 in sober diction. Accordingly, those thinkers who 



revolves. They remain so to the 

 end. . . . Though Schelling and 

 Spinoza may have intruded, the 

 'Addresses' and the 'Monologues,' 

 with their marvellous mixture of 

 acute empirical reflection and 

 divining mysticism, prove suffici- 

 ently that the later programme 

 of his many-sided speculation rests 

 upon original conceptions in which 

 he thought to have found the solu- 

 tion of the riddle of his own in- 

 nermost life. These fundamental 

 conceptions which, in accordance 

 with the rhetorical purpose of those 

 writings, could not be further de- 

 veloped are, in the sequel, taken up 

 by Schleiermacher's psychology in 

 order to receive their scientific 

 formulation and proof. ... I hope 



to show that Schleiermacher's rneta- 

 physic is best explained through 

 his psychology and not vice versa " 

 (' Schleiermacher's Theologie,' p. 5 

 sqq.) Had the revival of psychology 

 in Germany followed the course 

 adopted by Beneke and Fries, of 

 whom the former stands nearest to 

 Schleiermacher ; had it, in fact, 

 developed the introspective aspect, 

 there is no doubt that Schleier- 

 macher's psychology would have 

 found greater appreciation. But 

 this revival came, as we know, from 

 the natural sciences, and has, even 

 in the present day, hardly risen to 

 an appreciation of the work of the 

 introspective school, though Mach's 

 ' Analysis of Sensations ' seems to 

 pave the way in that direction. 



