452 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



to bridge over the two regions of the inanimate and the 

 animated creation. We know how in the beginning of the 

 century these phenomena attracted great attention, and 

 how, especially in the medical sciences, great importance 

 was attached to electrical, magnetic, and galvanic forces. 

 But, outside of this scientific interest in natural pheno- 

 mena, nature itself as a whole had become an object of 

 a new interest, not to say veneration, in all the three 

 countries I am dealing with, from an artistic, literary, 

 and poetical point of view. A return to nature was 

 proclaimed and practised in many ways and took many 

 forms : Rousseau in France was the exponent of one 

 very prominent form of this modern naturalism. He 

 opposed the artificiality of society and the logical aridity 

 of eighteenth century life and thought. He became the 

 founder and the greatest master in a peculiar form of 

 poetical prose, which had an enormous influence on Con- 

 tinental literature. In this country Goldsmith, Gray, 

 Cowper, and Burns represented a quite independent and 

 less pretentious school of naturalism, which opened out 

 an entirely new vein of poetical feeling and created new 

 forms of poetical diction. Both these products of 

 poetical and creative thought had a great influence on 

 German literature. There, an independent contribution 

 to this line of thought was given by Herder, who, in his 

 studies on the problems of humanity, the origins of 

 language and history, had recourse to the elemental 

 forces of nature as conditioning and producing historical 

 developments. He created an interest in primitive 

 cultures and in the popular poetry and songs of nations 

 all over the world. All these influences, that of 



