Page:Addresses to the German nation.djvu/129

 and to undertake a new examination, interpretation, and consolidation of the old doctrine and practice for the future. Let this, and the example that is to follow, be to you an illustration of the way in which Germany has always reacted on the rest of Europe. The general result was that the old doctrine thus obtained, at any rate, such innocuous efficacy as was possible to it, once it had been resolved not to abandon it altogether. But in particular, to those who supported it, it became an opportunity for, and a challenge to, more thorough and consistent reflection than had been given to it before. The doctrine, thus reformed in Germany, spread into the neo-Latin countries and there produced the same result, viz., a loftier enthusiasm; but, as this phenomenon was transitory, we shall say no more about it here. It is, however, noteworthy that in none of the entirely neo-Latin countries did the new doctrine obtain permanent recognition by the State, for it seems that German thoroughness among the rulers and German good-nature among the people were needed, if this doctrine was to be found compatible and made compatible with the supreme power.

78. In another respect, however, Germany exercised a general and permanent influence on other countries—though, indeed, not on the common people, but on the educated classes—by its reformation of the Church. By means of this influence Germany once more made other countries its forerunners and its instigators to new creations. Free and spontaneous thinking, or philosophy, had frequently been stimulated and practised in the preceding centuries under the dominion of the old doctrine; not, however, to bring forth truth out of itself, but solely to show that the doctrine of the Church was true and in what way it was true. Among the