OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 19 



in the conception of an intellectual intuition, and, as we 

 shall see, played a great part in their writings. About 

 the time when Schiller became acquainted with Kantian 

 aesthetics a great change had come over his own ideas, 

 and this change was helped on by the study of Kant's 

 works. When Schiller wrote his earlier treatises and 

 the great poem ' The Artists,' he was living under the 

 impression that a new era had dawned upon humanity ; 

 it was the short period of repose which in Germany 

 succeeded the wars of Frederick the Great, and preceded 

 the wars of the Revolution. In art, literature, and 

 poetry a new life had started. It was of home growth, 

 but was nourished by influences which came from far 

 and near, from the ancient and the modern world ; it had 

 in the eyes of its leaders a cosmopolitan, a humanitarian 

 character. Under this impression Schiller had begun 12. 



.,.-,. Influence of 



his poem with a glorification of the age which, as it Revolution, 

 seemed to him, had, through art and poetry, risen to 

 a singular height of calm dignity and repose, opening 

 illimitable vistas into the higher regions of culture. This 

 impression was for a short time heightened by the great 

 promise which the first stages and events of the French 

 Eevolution held out to the hopes of many thoughtful 

 observers. But subsequent events soon changed the 

 whole aspect. " Since his ' Klinstler ' four years had 

 passed, a great volume of stirring world - events had 

 happened, and his view of the height of civilised 

 humanity had been radically changed. Within a short 

 time he had witnessed the outburst of the French 

 Eevolution, its destructive storms, the fall of Royalism, 

 the horrors of September, the foundation of the Ee- 



