116 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



expression which, ever since the times of the Renaissance 

 and the Eeformation, has been adopted by very different 

 schools of taste and thought. It is the term Humanity. 

 This term used to characterise a movement during the 

 sixteenth century of which Erasmus and Melanchthon 

 were the great representatives on the Continent. It 

 was used to define the liberal studies of the Protestant 

 Universities in this country and abroad. Still later the 

 ideal of humanity was the term introduced to characterise 

 the classical works of German literature in their con- 

 trast to the productions of the age of enlightenment 

 (Aufklarung). 1 A century after we come again across 



1 The history of these two move- 

 ments of what is termed in Germany 

 " Humanismus" or "das Ideal der 

 Humanitat " has been written in 

 recent times by Fr. Paulseu in his 

 important ' Geschichte des gelehr- 

 teu Unterrichts auf den Deutschen 

 Schulen und Universitaten vom 

 Ausgang des Mittelalters bis zur 

 Gegenwart' (2 vols., 2nd ed., 1896, 

 1897). He there distinguishes two 

 periods in this movement of thought 

 in modern history. He deals both 

 with the older form of " Humanis- 

 mus " in the second half of the fif- 

 teenth century, which came to an 

 end at the beginning of the eigh- 

 teenth century, and with the second 

 or more recent form which started 

 in the middle of the eighteenth, and 

 as he maintains is coming to an end 

 at the present time. Regarding the 

 ideal of culture developed in the 

 former period he gives the follow- 

 ing definitions : " The aim of educa- 

 tion as it was developed under the 

 influence of ' Humanismus ' and 

 the Reformation during the six- 

 teenth century consists in : literary 

 culture and confessional orthodoxy 

 or, to use the formula of Jos. 

 Sturm, ' litterata pietas.' Liter- 



ary culture is manifested in 'elo- 

 quence,' that is, in the ability to 

 write classical Latin in prose and 

 verse. To this the older humanistic 

 teaching is directed ; imitation of 

 the ancient orators and poets is the 

 road to eloquence. The second 

 epoch, the epoch of ' Neuhumanis- 

 mus,' is primarily characterised 

 by giving up this aim. The Latin 

 imitation-eloquence and imitation- 

 poetry had, in the course of the 

 seventeenth century, become ob- 

 solete ; into their place there now 

 stepped first of all the French and 

 alongside of it the German poetry 

 and eloquence, themselves an imita- 

 tion of Roman literature. From 

 the days of Klopstock, Lessing, 

 Herder, Goethe, there arose an 

 independent German literature, the 

 poetry of original genius. This 

 was enthusiastic for Greek literat- 

 ure as the more original literature 

 compared with the Roman. It 

 heralded the Grseco- German ' Hu- 

 manismus.' Under its influence a 

 study of Greek language and literat- 

 ure becomes the main object and 

 professedly the main subject of 

 instruction in the German Higher 

 Schools. Through it the object of 



