THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 119 



anticipative comprehension of rationalism. It is the rebound in 

 which, in the domain of natural science, the period of natural philo- 

 sophy was replaced by the recent development of mechanics; the 

 change by which, in the field of mental sciences, the old rationalism 

 of the Aufklarung, as it had been developed in the generations follow- 

 ing 1680, again became conspicuous, though with alterations. The 

 outcome of this movement in the science of history, which had run 

 aground in the impotent epigonism of art and poetry, as in the bar- 

 ren historicism of the mental sciences of the period of 1860 to 1870, 

 was the reappearance of the individual-psychological method. But 

 the socio-psychological point of view was not yet sufficiently well 

 grounded to maintain its supremacy. In the competition of these 

 rival influences, Ranke grew to be a master of his art. This coinci- 

 dence, in a certain sense most fortunate, and at all events peculiar 

 in its way, gives to him and his works a position all their own. The 

 individual-psychologic point of view now gains the ascendency 

 more completely, though not so much because of Ranke as of his 

 disciples, especially Von Sybel. There was no longer any particular 

 importance attached to the efforts of those who thought and worked 

 according to the history-of-civilization method; these were not 

 opposed because they were not considered as of more than passing 

 significance. It was a time of almost purely political activity: the 

 nation yearned with every fibre of its soul for the long-coveted polit- 

 ical unity. Such works as the political history of the old German em- 

 pire by Giesebrecht, or Droysen's History of Prussian Polity, may be 

 cited as important phenomena in this connection. Why should they 

 not have preferred political history which, to a certain extent, was 

 the individual-psychologic method to all other forms of history? 

 This explains for the most part the fact that the advance in the 

 socio-psychological interpretation of events, made in the mean time 

 by other peoples, for example, the French in the philosophy of 

 Comte, met with small acceptance in Germany. 



But the last decades of the nineteenth century brought the re- 

 bound. The years 1870 and 1871 released men from their great 

 anxieties concerning the national life and unity; the development 

 of internal culture comes prominently now to the front. And that 

 happened at the very dawn of a new period of modern psychic 

 existence. The rise of political economy and technology, the rapid 

 development of freedom of trade all over the globe, the victories of 

 science in the realm of nature, even to penetrating into the confines 

 of the inner life: all of this and a host of other less important phe- 

 nomena yielded an untold amount of new stimuli and possibilities 

 of association, and with that an unheard-of extension of psychic 

 activity as then existing. But of this more in another lecture. The 

 result was a marked differentiation of intellectual activity, and with 



