Influence of Science Upon German Literature. 61 
the day. Whether the problem of life’s values is answered optimis- 
tically or pessimistically, the real value of life has become a problem, 
and will remain so as long as the individual is to determine what the 
real value shall be. The same changes take place in the religious life 
of the times. God, life, soul, immortality, have become probelmatical, 
eternal enigmas awaiting their solution ; the undividual exists 
only as a social being, becomes a decadent, who will not recognize 
the normal, nor see the sunlight, nor live a healthful life. Individ- 
ualism is the great problem of the day. 
The influence of Hegel was felt in the decades following his death 
and extended its power over the general literature and over the spe- 
cial sciences. The contrasts of the political and religious life pro- 
ceeded peacefully together for a while. Through the romantic move- 
ment a new, inner, religious life was awakened, but its connection 
with the political restoration soon drew it over to the old ecclesiastical 
party, which divided the Hegelian school into two parties on the 
question of a personal God and immortality of soul. One party 
maintained a personal God, immortality of the soul and the doctrine 
of the trinity, while the other adopted the theory of pantheism, as in 
the case of the scientists. This contrast to the logical idealism of 
Kant and his followers is best seen in Strauss’s “Life of Jesus” in 
1835. The fight of these two parties was bitter and eagerly engaged 
in by the youth. The most conspicuous personage of this contest was 
Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach, who, in 1830, published anonymously 
his celebrated article, “Thoughts On Death and Immortality,” in 
which he advocated pantheism, according to Spinoza and Hegel. In- 
stead of logical idealism, we now have sensual materialism, which 
possesses a corresponding theory of terrestrial happiness, a feature 
which took rapidly with the public and found its expression in Da- 
vid Friedrich Strauss’s “The Old and New Belief.” With compre- 
hensive consequence the Darwinian theory was developed. The soul- 
life was centered in the sensual “this side.” Hegelianism again gave 
rise to the socialism of Marx and Engel, which makes the moral, ju- 
dicial, scientific, artistic and religious life the result of economic pro- 
cesses. Metaphysical materialism now united with anthropological 
materialism, a natural conclusion of essentially naturalistic scientific 
views of the world, and, in this form, with this claim, materialism 
appeared in the middle of the nineteenth century to inherit the ideal- 
istic systems which had lost their power over the spirits of men. 
Natural philosophy now appeared to be fanatstic, antiquated. Me- 
chanical explanations, not only of all corporeal, but also of al psy- 
chical processes gained credence. The mechanical-chemical explana- 
