GROWTH AND DIFFUSION OF CRITICAL SPIRIT. 



167 



unifying principle from some other region of thought. 

 In the case of Strauss's work, the larger aspect was 

 gained under the influence of the philosophy of Hegel, 

 which has had such a dominant influence, consciously or 

 unconsciously, and for good or for evil, upon so many 

 other prominent students of history. Strauss, who was 

 brought up in the narrow surroundings and contracted 

 views of the Tubingen theological training-school, went 

 for the completion of his studies to Berlin, where he 

 came under the influence of both Hegel and Schleier- 

 macher, two luminaries of the first magnitude, who 

 moved in separate orbits.^ Thus it came about that the 



^ A great deal has been written 

 upon the distinct and very differ- 

 ent positions which were prepared 

 and represented respectively by 

 Hegel and Schleiermacher in Ger- 

 man thought, and especially in 

 German theology. For a long time 

 the importance of Schleiermacher 

 as a philosopher was neglected in 

 favour of his theological influence. 

 This was owing, to a large extent, 

 to the fact that he published no 

 works on pure philosophy, and 

 that his position, so far as the 

 latter is concerned, was known only 

 through his oral teaching and 

 to a small number of philoso- 

 phers, among whom Brandis and 

 Ritter are conspicuous, and spread 

 into wider circles only through the 

 posthumous publication of his Lec- 

 tures. The principal reason, how- 

 ever, must be found in this, that 

 Hegel absorbed all philosophical 

 interest, and that even after this 

 interest had gradually almost dis- 

 appeared, nevertheless nearly all 

 historians of modern philosophy 

 belonged to the school of Hegel 

 and were inspired by him ; the 

 historical labours in Schleiermach- 

 er's school being mostly directed to 



ancient and medieeval speculation. 

 "Schleiermacher was infinitely 

 different from Hegel in his person- 

 ality as well as in his teaching. 

 The two never stood in close con- 

 nection though they were placed 

 so near to eacli other in their com- 

 mon activity at the newly founded 

 University of Berlin, the centre of 

 German scholarship, from which 

 at that time an unparalleled 

 fructifying power spread over the 

 whole of recently liberated Ger- 

 many. Among the first minds of 

 the nation, which were here as- 

 sembled, these two men stood in 

 the first rank. But they came in 

 contact only to repel each other ; 

 a deep-seated antipathy filled them 

 to the last. Strauss somewhere 

 compared two theologians, Daub 

 and Schleiermacher, in the radical 

 difference of their character, with 

 Homer's heroes, Ajax and Ulysses. 

 Perhaps this comparison might 

 with the same right be applied to 

 Hegel and Schleiermacher. For as 

 Hegel's peculiarity was substantial 

 thoroughness, which penetrated 

 into the last ground of things, 

 into the unexplored depths of the 

 Universe ; so, on the other side. 



