OF THE SPIRIT. 



301 



also maintained by Hamann l and Herder, a friend and a 



development of the new philosophy 

 eccentric thinkers a great appre- 

 ciation of the personal element 

 which forms the foundation and 

 attractiveness of their somewhat 

 casual, aphoristic, but frequently 

 brilliant writings ; holding that 

 what they are leaving in the twi- 

 light of individual and emotional 

 thought, his own philosophy is aim- 

 ing at drawing into the clear 

 daylight of reason. He also points 

 out how Jacobi's polemics, against 

 Spinoza and Fichte in particular, 

 do not touch the deep per- 

 sonal regard which he expresses 

 for both thinkers. In a celebrated 

 letter, published in his ' Collected 

 Works,' Jacobi says to Fichte that 

 he does not take him personally to 

 be an atheist or a godless man, 

 though he has felt obliged to call his 

 doctrine, as also that of Spinoza, 

 atheistic. And towards the latter 

 he had indeed shown his real 

 veneration in an apostrophe written 

 earlier : " Be blessed you great and 

 holy Benedictus ! However you 

 may philosophise and err in words 

 regarding the nature of the Highest 

 Being, His truth was in your soul 

 and His love was your life." 



1 Johann Georg Hamann (1730- 

 1788) was an extraordinary figure 

 in that phase of German thought 

 which led out of the clear but dry 

 and thin atmosphere of the Auf- 

 Idarung, through much mist and 

 confusion, to the poetry and depth 

 of idealism and romanticism. He 

 himself is perhaps most promi- 

 nent representative in the moment 

 of confusion. That, in spite of 

 this, he had a great personal influ- 

 ence on other thinkers is by no one 

 better brought out than by Hegel 

 himself, who, in the height of his 

 literary career and fame (1828), 

 thought the subject important 

 enough to write a lengthy review 

 ('Werke,' vol. xvii. pp. 38-110) of 



Hamann's ' Collected Works ' ; and 

 for the student of to-day no better 

 characterisation of the man, his 

 works, and his personal influence can 

 be found than this review of Hegel's. 

 He shows there Hamann's simi- 

 larity to Rousseau inasmuch as he 

 created an extraordinary personal 

 interest, differing, however, from 

 Rousseau in this, that his works 

 were as unreadable, fragmentary, 

 and unfinished as Rousseau's were 

 the very reverse. He interested, 

 repelled, and fascinated a large 

 number of persons who thought 

 him in possession of some mystery 

 which they were in search of. 

 This search after some hidden 

 treasure, the expectancy of the age 

 that some formula or truth was on 

 the point of being revealed, made 

 thinking as well as emotional 

 natures ready to listen to true as 

 well as to false prophets ; indeed, 

 the oracular style, backed by a real 

 or supposed inspiration, was com- 

 mon to many writers, and, begin- 

 ning with Hamann, is characteristic 

 not only of the great poetry of 

 Goethe but also of some of the 

 greatest writings of Schelliug and 

 Hegel, and ministered for a time to 

 their attractiveness. Hegel shows, 

 inter alia, how the problem of belief 

 acquired in Hamann that larger 

 meaning which it possesses in 

 Jacobi's writings. Speaking of 

 Hamann's first well-known work, 

 entitled 'Socratic Memorabilia," 

 Hegel says : " Whilst towards the 

 public the semblance of an objective 

 content is given to it, the meaning, 

 content, and aim of this work are 

 personal to a degree in which his 

 other writings are not ; yet in all 

 there is more or less contained the 

 interest and the sense of the per- 

 sonal. Also what is said about 

 belief is similarly taken primarily 

 from Christian belief, but is ex- 

 panded to a wider meaning ; that 



