12 GUSTAV MAGNUS. 



incipient change of opinion was looked upon as treach- 

 ery, and excited bitter wrath. Owing to the Eeformation, 

 intellectual life had lost its old stability and cohesion ; 

 everything appeared in a new light, and new questions 

 arose. The German mind could not be quieted with 

 outward uniformity; when it was not convinced and 

 satisfied, it did not allow its doubt to remain silent. 

 Thus it was theology, and next to it classical philo- 

 logy and philosophy, which, partly as scientific aids of 

 theology, partly for what they could do for the solution 

 of the new moral, sesthetical, and metaphysical prob- 

 lems, laid claim almost exclusively to the interest of 

 scientific culture. Hence it is clear why the Protes- 

 tant nations, as well as that part of the Catholics 

 which, wavering in its old faith, only remained out- 

 wardly in connection with its church, threw itself with 

 S T tch zeal on philosophy. Ethical and metaphysical prob- 

 lems were chiefly to be solved ; the sources of knowledge 

 had to be critically examined, and this was done with 

 deeper earnestness than formerly. I need not enume- 

 rate the actual results which the last century gained 

 by this work. It excited soaring hopes, and it cannot 

 be denied that metaphysics has a dangerous attraction 

 for the German mind ; it could not again abandon it 

 until all its hiding-places had been searched through 

 and it had satisfied itself that for the present nothing 

 more is to be found there. 



