OF THE GOOD. 175 



individual self (or Ego) in the same light as we con- 

 sider the natural law in its relation to the universal 

 or absolute self. " We may say that the aim of the 

 individual self should be to change the laws of its 

 own freedom into natural laws and to change the laws 

 of nature into freedom, to produce in the individual, 

 nature, and in nature, individuality." ^ 



But Schleiermacher's historical sense led him to con- 

 ceive of the process of development in a more modern 

 and realistic fashion than Schelling conceived of it in 

 his various poetical, rather than genetic, expositions of 

 the different stages, powers, or potencies, in the un- 

 folding of the absolute mind. And through this 

 historical conception Schleiermacher was induced to 

 give a more concrete interpretation to the abstract 

 scheme laid down in Schelling's somewhat fanciful 

 deliverances. 



There are three leading aspects peculiar to Schleier- 

 macher's Ethics, through which the study of his writ- 

 ings still remains of «reat value. These three aspects 28. 



° ° ^ Three 



are : the idea of Individuality, his doctrine of the ^ji'^^^^^^j"/ 

 Highest Good, and the relation of philosophical or 

 abstract to positive or Christian Ethics. The philoso- 

 phical systems which immediately preceded Schleier- 

 macher had failed to attach due importance to the idea 

 of human personality, to individuality of character." 



^ Schelling's 'Werke,' vol. i. p. individuality, there was always a 



198. danger of dealing only with the 



2 This important point was re- general, abstract, or universal self, 



ferred to, supra, vol. iii. p. 255. , and of slipping back into the con- 



Although Fichte's philosophy ception of the one or absolute self, 



centred in the notion of self- there was not a sufficient interest 



hood, and as such gave great 1 in the actual existence of different 



prominence to the conception of I individualities. From a psycho- 



