OF KNOWLEDGE. 



353 



in the extreme north-east into the centre of Germany. 

 From there it spread to Gottingen, Leipsic, and subse- 

 quently to all the Protestant and to some of the Eoman 

 Catholic teaching centres of Germany. At Weimar it 

 came into contact with, and was eventually greatly 

 influenced by, the new literary — at once poetical and 

 religious — movement. The importance and promise of 

 this new movement ^ had been early recognised by the 

 spirited Duchess, Anna Amalia of Weimar, a Brunswick 

 princess and niece of Frederick the Great, who, after the 

 early death of her husband, ruled the small State with 

 remarkable intelligence, and with an equal regard for the 

 welfare of the people and the culture of art, science, 

 literature, and learning. For the education of her two 

 sons she had engaged the celebrated author, Wieland ; 

 his recommendation being that in one of his writings he 

 had discoursed with much freedom and liberality on the 

 education of princes and the administration of the State. 

 By this step she laid in 1772 the foundation of the lead- 

 ing position which Weimar occupied for a long time during 

 the golden age of modern German literature and art.^ 



^ Many recent historians of liter- 

 ature and philosophy have tried to 

 convey to the present more prosaic 

 and realistic generation an idea of 

 the great change which took place 

 in German culture at that period. 

 I quote only one passage among 

 many. " The whole culture of the 

 age had arrived at a great turning- 

 point. It began to descend into 

 more profound depths of thought 

 and sentiment. Feeling and pas- 

 sion began to waken from slumber, 

 imagination stirred gently and ven- 

 tured, here and there, to penetrate 

 through the surface dried up by 



VOL. III. 



rationalism. To act, to suffer, and 

 to enjoy with one's whole being — 

 this striving had awakened in 

 deeper minds such as that of 

 Hamaun. In the poetry of the 

 youthful Goethe it found vent in 

 stirring revelations. It worked in 

 no one so actively and in so many- 

 sided a manner as in the soul of 

 Herder," &c. (Haym : ' Herder, 

 nach seinem Leben und seinen 

 Werken,' vol. i., 1880, p. 577). 



- During the fourteen years 

 previous to the importation of 

 Kantian philosophy into the liter- 

 ary circle, enormous changes had 



