INTRODUCTION. 



51 



great work was that of A. v. Humboldt, who in the course as. 



Lotze's re- 



or a long career, peculiarly favoured by opportunities for utionto 

 studying Nature on an extensive scale, and for appreciating * 

 the detail of modern research, of which he was an illustrious 

 representative, had never lost sight of the all-pervading 

 unity. 1 In an elevated style, in which poetry and science 



tury, together with classical influ- 

 ences and new inspirations drawn 

 from the popular song-literature of 

 all nations. Hettner says (see last 

 volume but one, p. 7) : " Herder 

 applied Rousseau's gospel of Nature 

 to the demands of poetical sense 

 and creation. Thus he has become 

 essentially the forerunner of the 

 new school of poets : the last fetters 

 of the moralising style by which 

 even Lessing was still hampered 

 fell, and through the scientific study 

 of the beginnings and development 

 of human culture he became the 

 founder of a new science of Lan- 

 guage, Religion, and History, in the 

 lines of which we are still advanc- 

 ing." And p. 101 : " Herder does 

 not belong to the classics of the 

 style of Winckelmann, Lessiug, 

 Kant, Goethe, and Schiller ; he is 

 everywhere only suggestive, hardly 

 anywhere conclusive and final. For 

 this reason his writings are to some 

 extent antiquated. Nevertheless 

 Herder is one of our most im- 

 portant and influential spiritual 

 heroes. Herder made so deep an 

 impression on his age that the 

 great poetry of Goethe and Schiller, 

 the so-called Romantic School, the 

 philosophies of Schelling and Hegel, 

 cannot be imagined without Herder 

 as the precursor." The fourth 

 volume of Gervinus, ' Geschichte 

 der deutschen Dichtung,' contains 

 likewise a very important chapter 

 on Herder. But the great authority 

 on Herder is R. Haym, ' Herder nach 

 seinern Leben uud seinen Werken ' 

 (Berlin, 2 vols., 1880 and 1885). 



From the unpublished literary 

 notes, correspondences, and diaries 

 of Herder, which Haym inspected, 

 it is evident that the great idea of 

 writing a History of Humanity 

 originated in Herder's mind as far 

 back as the year 1769, on a voyage 

 from Riga to Nantes (on the way 

 to Paris). His diary closes thus : 

 " History of the progress and of the 



i powers of the human mind in the 

 concurrence of whole ages and 

 nations a spirit, a good demon, has 



i exhorted me to do this. Be that 

 my life's work, History, work !" 



The first attempt to carry out 

 his great idea was published by 

 Herder in the year 1774, with the 

 title : ' Auch eine Philosophic der 

 Geschichte zur Bildung der Mensch- 

 heit.' Herder was then in his 

 thirtieth year. His chief work 

 appeared ten years later (1784), with 

 the title ' Ideen zur Geschichte der 

 Menschheit.' Herder died in 1803. 

 Goethe's ' Faust,' which is an at- 

 tempt to deal with the highest 

 problems of human interest, the 

 problems of knowledge, evil, sin, 

 and redemption, as they appear in 

 the history of a great individual, 

 not of the race, had its first begin- 

 nings about the same time as Her- 

 der's ' Histoiy of Mankind.' But 

 the work was not finished till a year 

 before Goethe's death in 1831. 



1 Alex. v. Humboldt, ' Kosmos. 

 Entwurf einer physischen Welt- 

 beschreibung,' 1845. Like Her- 

 der's great work on the ' History of 

 Humanity' and Goethe's 'Faust,' 

 Humboldt's ' Kosmos ' occupied a 



