OF THE GOOD. 



135 



7. 

 Free inquiry 



forget that in the many larger and smaller German 

 States much was done by enlightened Rulers, as well as 

 Ministers of State, to improve the economic and social 

 condition of the people, not so much by sweeping 

 reforms such as were carried later on by men like Stein 

 in Prussia, as by faithful attention to detail in more 

 restricted areas. 1 



So far as ethical thought is concerned, the spirit of 

 free inquiry variously termed Rationalism, Aufklarung, il j 1 to s f 1 ta " 

 or Enlightenment went down to the metaphysical ^morality! 

 foundations and presuppositions of morality, mostly in a 

 way that was friendly to the traditional religious doc- 

 trines, desiring to throw upon them the light of Reason 

 and to conceive of Revelation as a process not confined 

 to a single historical fact, but as a necessary force in the 

 progress and education of humanity. To this must be 

 added the belief in an underlying harmony that was 

 inherited from the philosophy of Leibniz 2 and the spirit 

 of compromise and mutual concession among various 

 forms of religious faith which sprang from it. The 



1 Interesting information on this 

 point will be found in Cl. Th. 

 Perthes' ' Politische Zustande und 

 Personen in Deutschland, zur Zeit 

 der Franzosischen Herrschaft,' 

 1862. This volume refers to the 

 South and West of Germany. A 

 second volume referring to Austria 

 was published posthumously in 

 1869. Especially as to popular 

 education consult the third and 

 fourth volumes of Karl Schmidt's 

 ' Geschichte der Padagogik ' (3rd 

 and 4th ed. by W. Lange, 1876 

 and 1883) ; and for higher educa- 

 tion, F. Paulson's well-known work 

 referred to supra, vol. iii., note, 



p. 116. 



2 In this direction the influence 

 of Shaf tesbury on German thinkers 

 was probably quite as important as 

 that of Leibniz, as is clearly shown 

 in the writings of Herder, who 

 attached a translation of Shaftes- 

 bury's ' Hymn ' to one of his 

 theological writings, and planned a 

 treatise which should exhibit the 

 three thinkers, Spinoza, Shaftes- 

 bury, and Leibniz in parallel, con- 

 sidering that Shaftesbury's rhap- 

 sody " contains the Spinozistic- 

 Leibnizian philosophy in the most 

 beautiful and select extract." See 

 R. Haym, ' Herder,' vol. ii. p. 269. 



