150 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



of view which have themselves outrun criticism, being 

 the spontaneous outcome of the inspired and divining 

 genius. 



This has notably been the case in the treatment of 



larger historical subjects, and is probably the reason 



why the historical literature of Germany till within 



recent times cannot be compared with that of France 



40. and of Great Britain. It is only since the time of 



Broader 



%iewofWs- jSTiebuhr, who was followed by Eanke and his school, 



tory since 



Niebuhr. ^^g^^ Germany has produced historians who have had 

 great influence outside of Germany : this reputation 

 rests not so much and perhaps not mainly upon the 

 critical preparation of the material with which they 

 dealt, as upon the general aspects from which their 

 histories were written. These were not gained ex- 

 clusively through critical studies, but were imported, 

 as it were, from outside and combined with vast 

 erudition, which itself was acquired through academic 

 training. To mention only a few examples : Fr. Chr. 

 Schlosser (1776-1861) wrote the history of a period, 

 the eighteenth century, from a philosophical point of 

 view. He was one of the first who, on a large scale, 

 showed the connection and mutual influence of politics 

 and literature as it characterises the period of enlighten- 

 ment, the philosophical century. Schlosser's point of 

 view was adopted and enlarged by his disciple G. G. 

 Gervinus, who was the first to conceive the idea of 

 writing the history of the poetical genius of a nation, 

 treating of the same in its spontaneous development and 

 its dependence upon external conditions : a conception 

 which could only have grown up under the inspiration 



