GROWTH AND DIFFUSION OF CRITICAL SPIRIT. 159 



influence which tempered criticism in all its greater 

 exponents during the first half of the century in Ger- 

 many as the religious or spiritual influence of German 

 idealism. I emphasise again that I do not limit the 

 term " religion " by any strict dogmatic or confessional, 45. 



Liberation 



by any orthodox or rationalistic definition, irom this of historical 



criticism 



background of a religious conviction which found its ex- ' 

 pression sometimes in traditional forms, more frequently lnfluence - 

 in poetical or philosophical rendering, historical criticism 

 in Germany liberated itself more and more through and 

 after the revolutionary crisis of the middle of the century. 

 From that time the religious influence loses its tem- 

 pering and controlling effect. Inasmuch, however, as 

 criticism alone is not sufficient to lead to any definite 

 results or any positive view in any extensive department 

 of learning, other influences had gained ground, of which 

 the political, the naturalistic, and the industrial are the 

 most prominent. In no department of knowledge which, 

 through the great battle of free inquiry with tradition, 

 was rescued during the first half of the century from the 

 control of inherited views, have these modern influences 

 shown themselves more prominently than among recent 

 German historians. To follow this up is not my present 

 task ; for it would be necessary to enter in greater com- 

 pleteness and detail into the development of German 

 historiography, 1 which, as has been said, begins to be of 



1 Readers who are interested in 

 this will find full information in 

 F. X. von Wegele, ' Geschichte der 

 Deutschen Historiographie ' (1885, 

 p. 975. to end) ; in 0. Lorenz, 

 ' Die Geschichtswissenschaft ' (2 

 vols./ 1886-91) ; in the chapter on 



" Mediaeval and Modern Historio- 

 graphyat the German Universities," 

 by Theodor Lindner (Lexis, loc. cit., 

 vol. ii. p. 549 sqq. ) ; and lastly, in 

 Ernst Bernheim, ' Lehrbuch der 

 Historischen Methode ' (1st ed., 

 1889 ; 6th ed., 1908). 



