GROWTH AND DIFFUSION OF CRITICAL SPIRIT. HT 



the term in the later writings of Auguste Comte, and 

 in our days the word is being used by a young school 

 of thinkers in Oxford who have come under the influence 

 of the original writings of the late Prof. Wm. James. 



The fact that the critical labours of Lessing found a 

 first resting - place in an admiration of the Greeks, 

 notably Sophocles, and of Shakespeare, an admiration 

 which was transmitted, deepened and widened, by Goethe 

 and the Eomantic school, has exposed the whole of 

 German literature to the remark that it was largely 

 an imitation of the ancient classics on the one side, and 

 of Shakespeare and the English on the other. As a 

 matter of fact, it was only through the personality and 

 originality of the small number of its greatest representa- 

 tives that the German mind, after going through the 

 school of the ancients and of Shakespeare, emancipated 

 itself and rose to the production of a few works of the 

 highest order, equalling, though not excelling, the great 

 models which were its masters. To follow up this 

 development would, however, lead us far away from the 

 history of the critical movement, and belongs really not 



classical studies is changed ; the 

 aim of the Neo-humanistic school 

 work is not imitation, either in 

 the Greek or in the German lan- 

 guage, but the culture of mind and 

 taste through intercourse with the 

 ancient authors in every branch of 

 literature " (vol. i. p. 3). 



The ideal of humanity in the 

 classical literature of Germany is 

 also brilliantly dealt with by Hett- 

 ner in his ' Literatur-Geschichte ' 

 (quoted vol. i. p. 50), and by Carl 

 Schmidt in his ' Geschichte der 

 Piidagogik' (ed. W. Lange, vol. iv., 

 1876). It will be seen from this 



extract from Paulsen that German 

 " Humanismus," neither in its 

 earlier nor in its later form, had 

 any sympathy with the contrast 

 emphasised in Auguste Comte's 

 'Religion of Humanity,' namely, 

 the opposition to religion with a 

 personal Deity. It is also quite 

 different from what has been 

 termed " Humanism " in the new 

 Oxford School, which would more 

 appropriately be termed " Personal- 

 ism " if this word had not already 

 been appropriated by Renouvier 

 for the religion of his Neo-criti- 



