Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 65.djvu/86

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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the jurist, von Klein, the statesman, director Borgstede, friends of Goethe and influenced to some extent by his spirit, as well as men like Thaer, Tralles and Johannes von Müller could not fail to be dissatisfied with the empiricism of the day, and to demand a fair hearing for any system of thought which aimed at replacing it.

The scientific regeneration of Germany followed its moral regeneration. As Harnack points out, two great streams of thought were united in nearly the same men, Fichte, Schleiermacher, F. A. Wulff, Niebuhr, von Stein and William von Humboldt. Foremost among them all

Alexander von Humboldt.

was Schleiermacher, preacher, professor, philosopher. The spiritual life of the eighteenth century had been determined by its study of history and its devotion to reason. It had demanded clearness, immense learning, elegance in expression, the classicism of Cicero rather than that of Greece. French influence was everywhere felt. German authors were weakened by subserviency to forms of expression and methods of thinking suggestive of the narrowness of the schools in which they had been trained. Although Hume had little influence in Germany, the writings of Rousseau were very effective in shattering the old faith. If we also take into account the writings of Winckelmann on Grecian art,