Page:Addresses to the German nation.djvu/130

 German Protestants, philosophy was at first given the same task in regard to their doctrine, and with them it became the handmaid of the gospel, just as with the Schoolmen it had been the handmaid of the Church. In foreign countries, which either had no gospel or else had not apprehended it with pure German devotion and depth of soul, this free-thinking, fanned into flame by the brilliant triumph it had achieved, rose higher and more easily, unfettered by a belief in the supersensuous. It remained fettered, however, by a belief of the senses in the natural understanding [Verstand] that develops without mental or moral training. Far from discovering in the reason [Vernunft] the source of truth which rests upon itself, the utterances of this raw understanding were to this way of thinking exactly what the Church was for the Schoolmen and the gospel for the first Protestant theologians. As to whether they were true, not the slightest doubt was raised; the only question was how they could maintain this truth against hostile assertions.

But, as this way of thinking did not even enter the domain of the reason, whose opposition would have been more important, it found no opponent except the existing historical religion. This it easily disposed of by applying to it the measure of understanding or common sense, which was presupposed, and thereby proving to its own satisfaction that this religion was in direct contradiction to the latter. Hence it came about that, as soon as all this was made quite plain, the word “philosopher” became synonymous with “irreligious atheist” in foreign countries, and both designations served as equally honourable marks of distinction.

79. This attempt at complete emancipation from all belief in external authority, which was the right thing about these struggles in foreign countries, acted as a fresh