OF THE SPIRIT. 333 



or no personality, the Absolute or Infinite is the home 

 and abode rather of the only full personality ; finite 

 human beings, on the other side, possess of this highest 

 form of spiritual life only a small allowance, the refiex 

 only of the full, pure, and perfect light. 



From the point of view reached in Lotze's writings sr. 



^ . Relation of 



we may look back upon the ideas developed on this ^'^^^^fj*^"^ 

 subject in the preceding systems of philosophy, notably ^^^^^^^' 

 in those of Hegel and Schleiermacher. And perhaps 

 the difference in the treatment of it by those two lead- 

 ing thinkers may best be described by saying that the 

 system of Hegel did not do justice to the problem of 

 personality, be this finite or infinite, but that Schleier- 

 macher had a full appreciation of the importance 

 of finite personality. In other words, Schleiermacher 

 introduced into his system the full and clear conception 

 of individuality, meaning by this term finite personality ; 

 whereas, in Hegel's system even the finite forms of 

 personality appear to receive as little attention as they 

 do in Kant's system. It was one of the main objections 

 which Schleiermacher's mind harboured against the ethics 

 of Kant, that the latter founded morality upon a purely 

 formal and inflexible principle which appeared empty 

 and left no room for individual modes of conduct, and it 

 was just in these that Schleiermacher himself recognised 

 one of the main characteristics of man and mankind. 

 But it has been repeatedly urged that Schleiermacher's 

 conception of religion as the relation to the Infinite, 

 as the feeling of absolute dependence of the finite, gives 

 ample room for the endless variety of finite lives and 

 aspirations, but concentrates the whole conception of the 



