OF THE UNITY OF THOUGHT. 669 



to their readers, and especially to their youthful hearers, 

 for giving to them the deepest truth, a message which 

 was sacred to them. 



This is not the only position from which the highest 

 philosophical problem, the formation of a reasoned creed, 

 can be approached. The problem of philosophy, the 

 unification of thought and knowledge, may be regarded 

 like any other scientific problem or like an artistic per- 

 formance. The interest in it may not be the highest, the 

 religious interest, it may be purely metaphysical or ar- 

 tistic or scientific. This is notably the case where philo- 

 sophical speculation is carried on as an interesting pursuit, 

 but without that responsibility which, in the mind of every 

 serious thinker, the teaching profession inevitably adds to 

 the purely intellectual interest. Schopenhauer did not 

 experience this personal responsibility of the teacher who 

 has daily to meet and address a youthful audience. 

 Thus, whilst Kant, Fichte, Hegel, and Schleiermacher took 

 part, and were leaders in the great educational work 

 of the nation, this consideration entirely disappears in 

 Schopenhauer's writings. He however conceived the 

 contrast differently, regarding himself as the devotee of 

 pure truth and the professorial class as practising an 

 immoral system of accommodation. 



In the same degree as the personal element disappears, 

 the literary and artistic element takes its place. The 

 writings of Schopenhauer appeal primarily to an audience 

 not under academical authority, whom they attract not by 

 the moral force of their deliverance but by the excellence 

 of their literary style. From this point of view Lotze is 

 the only writer of the other class who can be compared 



