OF THE BEACFTrFUL. 11 



disciples abroad to give a complete Philosophy of Life. 

 To afford this it was deficient in depth and comprehen- 

 siveness. It required to be spiritualised and enlivened. 

 The earlier leaders of the new movement in Germany 

 tried to do this by what we now term the sentimental, a 

 phase of literature influenced partly by English writers, 

 but quite as much by the writings of Kousseau. This 

 earlier phase was followed by a new and genuine outburst 

 of true poetry in Goethe, who came under the influence 

 of the English, of Eousseau, of Winckelmann's classicism, 

 of Lessing's criticism, of Herder's naturalism, and of 

 Spinoza's pantheism, but emerged from all these influences 

 with an original though unsystematic philosophy of his 

 own. Compared with this underlying but unwritten 

 philosophy of poetry and art, that of the schools appeared 

 hopelessly dry and shallow. It must have been generally 

 felt that the skeleton of logical forms and moral precepts 

 had to be clothed with something that would give it life, 

 colour, and interest, and which corresponded more with the 

 spirit of the age. In search of it forgotten thinkers, such 

 as Spinoza, were studied. It was, however, Kant who first 

 of all supplied what was wanted, and this in apparent 

 connection with the ruling philosophy of the schools on 

 the one side and those very writings of Locke, Hume, 

 and Eeid on the other, which had been superficially 

 absorbed by the popular philosophy of the period. But 

 of the new critical, and especially of the poetical, literature 

 of his country Kant had taken no notice, and it might 

 appear as if his philosophy would not do justice to the 

 poetical and artistic powers of the human mind, — the 

 very side from which the leaders in German literature. 



