and local life; military reforms called the humblest citizens to feel that they had a duty to the nation and a share in common dangers and glories; greater freedom of religious confessions was secured; privileges of nobility were diminished.
The wars of liberation, the splendid struggles to throw off the Napoleonic yoke, were attended by awful sufferings and caused the ruin of multitudes of families; but they also quickened moral earnestness, patriotic fervor, national spirit, charity for the distressed, religious zeal and faith. Rich and poor, noble and burgher were involved in one peril and made common cause. There came reactions, but the social chasm was never quite so wide as before. Freedom of association, broken at the fall of the guilds, was somewhat restored in the new forms. Members of trades, professions, and churches, artists and philanthropists profited by this tendency and opportunity. Remembrance of the tyranny of guilds, however, contributed to the suspicion and fear which retarded the growth of voluntary associations.
Social ideals of culture.—The Illumination did its work and sowed its seed. Kant and Fichte brought men to a consciousness of the powers of reason. Lessing taught men to regard education as a part of the divine plan of revelation. Goethe and Schiller represented human existence in its beauty and harmony. Men began to believe that almost anything is possible to education. Rationalism had induced men to lean on themselves. The Illumination was superficially optimistic; it promised the Golden Age after a brief and easy contest with tyranny and darkness. It was ethical in a mild way, but religious fervor was a suspect. Reason was set against authority; sin and redemption were lightly touched; atomistic individualism was a mark of theory. Humanity was a great word, and fine sentiments found eloquent and pathetic literary forms; but little hard work was done to effectively organize help. For such obscure and self-sacrificing heroism of deed other elements were required. The great literature produced by the demi-gods of culture helped to blend the discordant dialects and give the people one language, and that not the French in which Frederick the Great loved to write, but
