158 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT, 



44. 

 Political 

 temper in 

 Mommsen. 



the first great German historian in whom an unrivalled 

 mastership in the critical methods and an unparalleled 

 erudition was mingled with the modern political temper.-^ 

 He had lived through the great political crisis of the 

 middle of the century which had swept away all the 

 older landmarks, many of the great aspirations of the 

 earlier period, and also that religious spirit which — in an 

 unconfessional and unorthodox form — lived in the great 

 heroes of the classical epoch and in those who were 

 inspired by them. 



In the General Introduction to this work I have 

 used the word Eeligion as denoting what is to us of 

 the deepest personal concern, our innermost faith and 

 convictions, finding expression in individual subjective 

 thought ; not infrequently also in poetic or artistic 

 creation. In tliis sense I may now refer to that 



* " In Mommsen's Work the 

 whole receives a peculiarly vivid 

 colouring which evidently stands 

 in connection with the political 

 mood which recent experiences had 

 produced in many patriotic minds. 

 The ' Ideologues ' are ridiculed 

 with caustic bitterness, and again 

 and again we are told with an 

 impetuous accent that only those 

 can count on a statesmanlike in- 

 fluence who understand how to 

 calculate calmly and to utilise 

 existing political forces. Con- 

 spicuous is the contrast with the 

 solemn gravity and the old - fash- 

 ioned stiffness of what has been 

 called 'dignity of historic style' 

 . . . : men and things are conceived 

 with fresh immediateness and 

 brought out with drastic vivacity. 

 In particular the active persons are 

 not mere shadows, but are full of 

 pulsating freshness of life. . . . 



In all this the polemical tendency 

 which pervades the whole work 

 makes itself felt with an energy 

 characteristic of an opposition based 

 upon fundamental principles. . . « 

 The political estimate of the whole 

 development of the Roman Republic 

 in its different phases produces 

 everywhere original and suggestive 

 points of view ; . • > the defects 

 of the republican constitution are 

 I^ointed out ; the events of the last 

 century are placed in quite a new 

 light as preparatory to the military 

 monarchism of Caesar ; the im- 

 portance of which is pictured with 

 evident preference. . . . The edu- 

 cated public in Germany whicli had 

 lost nearly all interest in home 

 labours referring to the ancient 

 world was won with one stroke 

 for Roman history " (Wachsmuth, 

 ' Einleitung,' &c., p. 48 sqq.) 



