552 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



The abstract method which Fichte followed was 

 adopted, though probably without any distinct and 

 conscious connection, by a more practical thinker who 

 has made a lasting impression upon one distinct side 

 of political economy. This was J. H. von Thiinen, 1 



though unjustly been accused of 

 realistic epicureanism and egoistic 

 exclusiveness. Both so different 

 are yet at one in their compre- 

 hensive view of modern life : 

 unclear in single things, full' of 

 error and ignorance in detail, their 

 intuitive genius impels them to an- 

 ticipate the great contrasts of our 

 society, to enter a protest against 

 narrow egoism, and to claim a moral 

 foundation and renovation also of 

 the economic structure. If the 

 poet in his telling description 

 in his ' Wanderjahre,' introduces 

 the chase, fishery and agricul- 

 ture, commerce and industry, art 

 and science as a great organ- 

 ism ; if he preaches the sanctity 

 of landed property and of the 

 family, a moral education, a fixed 

 professional activity and free as- 

 sociation, self-restraint and moral 

 subordination, but as the crown 

 of all, a free union for all interests 

 of humanity if he holds up this 

 picture as an ethical mirror to 

 his age, he is as wrong in single 

 details as he is right in his 

 fundamental conception, just like 

 Fichte. We may say of both 

 what Rosenkranz says of Goethe : 

 the detail may be criticised with- 

 out destroying its value ; it is 

 petty to stickle at the single 

 oddities and contradictions and 

 to overlook the general truth. 

 Both stand in grand prophetic 

 conception above the limited 

 micrology of the professional 

 science of their age. They rise 

 beyond the dim oil lamps of 

 common life like shining rockets, 

 marking the future course in large 



strokes though the detail remains 

 unclear ; and this is the vocation 

 of the genius who, with intuitive 

 glance, understands his age and 

 strides in front of it." 



1 Died 1850. Von Thunen was 

 one of the first agriculturists in 

 Germany, schooled first in the 

 crude traditional, then in the 

 rational methods of Thaer, and 

 latterly scientifically at the Uni- 

 versity of Gottingen. A native 

 of Oldenburg, he married a 

 Mecklenburg lady, became tenant- 

 farmer in 1806, and purchased in 

 1810 the estate of Tellow which, 

 through his writings, has become 

 famous. His biography has been 

 written by Schuhmacher (1868). 

 The historian of German economic 

 science, Wilhelm Roscher (1817- 

 1894), has devoted an interesting 

 chapter to von Thunen, who, like 

 Liebig from a different point of 

 view, may be considered a pioneer 

 in modern German agriculture. 

 Scientific economists have been 

 proud to call themselves pupils of 

 von Thunen, among them no one 

 more so than the eminent pro- 

 fessor of Economics. Heinrich von 

 Helferich (died 1892 : Gottingen 

 and Munich). In this country 

 Ingram has drawn attention to 

 von Thiinen's unique position : 

 von Thunen was strongly im- 

 pressed with " the danger of a 

 violent conflict between the middle 

 class and the proletariat, and 

 studied earnestly the question of 

 wages, which he was one of the 

 first to regard habitually, not 

 merely as the price of the com- 

 modity labour, but as the means 



