OF REALITY. 



473 



or rather the regeneration of the conventional theological 

 and religious teaching through a critical study of the 

 Scriptures on the one side, and a philosophical fathoming 

 of the deeper meaning — i.e., of the spirit of the sacred 



theological interest. Others of 

 equal or, in one instance, of even 

 greater eminence, such as Goethe, 

 Schiller, Fr. Schlegel, though with- 

 out theological bias, had a genuinely 

 religious interest. And this formed 

 one of the important connecting 

 links between what we may term 

 the spiritual and the profane or 

 secular literature of the whole 

 classical period. The entire circle 

 of their interests, the whole body 

 of thought which they put forward, 

 was antagonistic only to two ex- 

 tremes : narrow clericalism on the 

 one side and soulless materialism 

 on the other. An idea or an ideal 

 common to them all was the unity 

 of the Divine and the human. 

 And to this Goethe added and 

 Schelling adapted the idea of the 

 immanence of the Divine in nature. 

 'It was only for a moment that 

 Fichte, under the influence of 

 Spinoza, seemed to be contented 

 with representing the Divine as the 

 moral order of the Universe ; he 

 soon adopted again a more spiritual 

 view. And at a very early stage 

 both Schelling and Hegel identified 

 the Absolute with the Divine prin- 

 ciple, using interchangeably the 

 terms Mind, Absolute, and God. 

 This reiutroduction of the words 

 and terms used in specifically re- 

 ligious writings into philosophical 

 and scientific discussions — a habit, 

 if we may say so, not indulged in 

 by Kant — gave again to the philo- 

 sophies of Schelling and Hegel 

 from the beginning and likewise 

 to the later philosophy of Fichte, 

 not only a poetical but distinctly 

 also a spiritual character, and this 

 in addition to the intellectual and 

 ethical tone peculiar to Kant. But 



it was in reality more than a mere 

 habit of thought — it was the central 

 conviction that the truly Real, the 

 ultimate Reality, is what religion 

 terms God, a living and active 

 Spirit and, as such, a Personality. 

 Whether the latter conviction can 

 be logically defended (if not also 

 demonstrated) is a problem which 

 occupied a later and more critical 

 generation and has produced an 

 enormous literature. The perusal, 

 however, of the philosophical litera- 

 ture of that age does not, as it 

 seems to me, permit any doubt 

 that a conviction that the truly 

 Real is a Spirit essentially identical 

 with the God of religion underlies 

 the thought and the writings of 

 the foremost thinkers of that age, 

 and that thinking readers and 

 listeners expected from its great 

 leaders in thought a demonstration 

 of this truth ; that this formed one 

 of the main attractions which their 

 speculations possessed and that, at 

 a later period, the interest in them 

 declined in the same degree as a 

 general impression gained ground 

 that this expectation was not — or 

 could not be — fulfilled. And when, 

 in the year 1865, J. H. Stirling 

 initiated that serious study of 

 Hegel's Philosophy before which 

 Ferrier recoiled, but which has 

 been continued in this country ever 

 since, it was one of the main points 

 which he urged that this philosophy 

 was destined to stem the tide of 

 materialism and scepticism and 

 strengthen the spiritual or re- 

 ligious view of things which waa 

 threatened in this country. A 

 similar interest seems also to have 

 drawn T. H. Green to a study of 

 Hegel, though hie foundations lay 



