OF THE SPIRIT. 



305 



training created in him a special appreciation of the 

 religious problem, he stood outside of any special religi- 

 ous organisation and did not extend his interest in 

 this problem to an understanding of the positive 

 historical religion and its manifestation in a community 

 of believers i.e., in the Christian Church. 



II. 



The first step to an understanding of this, the most 27. 



Schleier- 



important phenomenon of modern history, was taken macher's 

 by one who alone among the great thinkers of modern 

 Germany has been able to hold the balance between a 

 genuine theological and an equally genuine philosophical 

 interest. Schleiermacher l was one of those rare minds 



1 The most important work on 

 Schleiermacher (1768-1834) is the 

 'Life' by Wilhelm Dilthey (vol. i., 

 1870). It does not reach beyond 

 the year 1802, but deals fully 

 with the 'Reden iiber die Reli- 

 gion,' by far the most important 

 of Schleiermacher's Works from a 

 philosophical point of view ; but 

 the main value of Dilthey 's book 

 (542 pages of small type and 

 145 pages of valuable documents 

 referring to the inner development 

 of Schleiermacher) does not lie 

 in the biographical details, nor 

 even in the penetrating analysis 

 of his earlier works, but rather in 

 the interesting picture which he 

 draws of the state of the higher 

 mental life literary, philosophical, 

 and poetical which characterised 

 the Berlin circle of eminent 

 writers, thinkers, and scholars at 

 the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century. For the moment it must 



VOL. IV. 



be regretted that the book has 

 been long out of print and that the 

 continuation is wanting. That the 

 eminent author who will, as time 

 goes on, probably stand out more 

 and more as one of the most 

 original thinkers in Germany at 

 the end of the nineteenth century, 

 was able to appreciate many other 

 sides and systems of mental cul- 

 ture, to the study of which he 

 devoted his life, is shown by his 

 other writings, notably by his 

 very penetrating analysis of the 

 early development of Hegel (quoted 

 above, vol. iii. p. 250 n.), who, 

 alongside of Schleiermacher, shone 

 as a centre of intellectual light 

 and life in the north of Germany 

 during the twenty years from 

 1815 to 1835. Considering the 

 enormous literature, biographical, 

 epistolary, and critical, which forms 

 the source of information from 

 which Dilthey drew his materials, 



U 



