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PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



teaching acquired a unique position, bringing it 

 into fruitful contact with the realistic spirit of the 

 popular educationalists and their practical religious 

 teaching, and he founded, in a narrower sphere, 

 an independent philosophical school which counted 

 eminent representatives such as Schleiden the botanist 

 on the one side and de Wette the theologian on the 

 other. Fries summed up his psychology of religion 

 in the formula : " phenomena are known to us, the 

 truly real we believe in, through the former (know- 

 ledge) we gain a presentiment of the latter (the objects 

 of " faith "). 1 But Fries was not, any more than 

 Jacobi or Krug, a theologian, and, though his religious 



1 A popular exposition of this 

 view is given by Fries in ' Wissen, 

 Glaube und Ahndung' (1805). 

 The word Ahndung has a double 

 meaning in the German language, 

 and, in the meaning which Fries 

 gives it, it is therefore frequently 

 spelt Ahnung. In this sense and 

 in the verbal form (Ahnen) it has 

 no equivalent in the English 

 language. The best rendering 

 seems to be, to have a presenti- 

 ment or a (spiritual) foretaste, viz., 

 of the higher truth or the truly 

 real. The formula can be explained 

 in two relations. The belief in the 

 truly 'real as distinguished from 

 the merely apparent may be 

 considered solely as a negation 

 of the latter. In this light 

 Jacobi considered Kant's ' Thing 

 in itself.' But it can also be 

 considered as arising from a special 

 aspect, the poetical or sesthetical 

 aspect, which throws upon phen- 

 omena a light which they do not 

 in reality possess : ' ' The close 

 relationship of this poetical religion 

 with the identification of religion 

 and poetry which prevailed in the 



Romantic School is quite apparent ; 

 the nearest counterpart of Fries' 

 religio-sesthetical conception is to 

 be found in Novalis' poetico- 

 religious idealism, only that the 

 latter is not content with the 

 merely aesthetical world-view, but 

 attributes to the ideal enthu- 

 siasm the power of a magical 

 world-construction, whereas Fries 

 retains, with sober reasonableness, 

 the dividing line between reality 

 and the ideal." 0. Pfleiderer, 

 from whose ' Geschichte der Reli- 

 gionsphilosophie ' (3rd ed., 1893, 

 p. 474) this quotation is taken, 

 makes the pertinent remark that 

 such a religion could never become 

 popular, and that Fries shares 

 this exclusively aristocratic atti- 

 tude in religion with the Romanti- 

 cists, having betrayed this trait 

 in the motto of his 'Religions- 

 philosophic' (1832): "Odi pro- 

 fan um vulgus et arceo," which 

 contrasts strikingly with the words 

 of our Saviour, "Come to me all 

 ye that labour and are heavy 

 laden." 



