Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/645

 Lanipreclit : Deutsche Gescliichte 635 ment. The teaching of men like Lichtenberg, Lessing, Kant, gained in influence. This is the foundation of the classical period. Important in the rest of the chapter is the treatment of the age's growth of feeling for external nature, from sentimental delight in her pensive beauties to intense enjoyment of her grandeur and an almost morbid vivification (" Beseelung"). Next, the author traces the emotional intensification of religious, ethical, and pedagogical ideals after the aridness of the age of individualism. Toward the end of the century, however, increas- ing emphasis is laid on the training of the will. Chapter iii. (pp. 313-409), " Neue Weltanschauung", deals with the rise of the earliest " subjektivistisch " psychology. Then follows a dis- cussion of the various attempts of the age to solve the world-riddle, first through Pantheism and the cult of Spinoza's philosophy (Herder), then by means of epistemology, culminating in the subjectivity of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (1781). But the transcendentalism of the " Practical Reason " with its " Categorical Imperative " made of Kant a severe moral teacher very aptly compared to Luther. Lamprecht then contrasts with Kant's method that of Goethe, as that of the scien- tific investigator turning primarily to external nature. Yet Goethe, too, an exponent of a subjective age, recognized the limit of human reason, and postulated a Power within the phenomenon discernible only through intuition. In this presentation we hear the echoes of the numerous dis- cussions on Goethe which during the last decades have thrown floods of light on him as a scientist and thinker (Kalischer, Harnack, Steiner, Sie- beck, etc.). Lamprecht rightly concludes that Kant merely matured and did not create Schiller's ethical and esthetic principles. Like Goethe and Kant, Schiller insists on controlled emotions. In chapter iv. (pp. 409-567), "Neue Dichtung", Lamprecht traces the manifestations of the new psyche from the early sentimental poetry of Klopstock through the wild chaos of the " Sturm und Drang" (here introducing some interesting remarks on the change in the conception of fate during that period) to the " innere Bindung zum Klassizisnius." There is here nothing especially new, but the entire evolution of Ger- man literature is viewed in a new light. Chapter v. (pp. 568-704), " Bildende Kunst und Musik ", deals in the same fashion with the evolution of art and music. Here a word on the development of art-criticism — the change from " Kunstverstand " to " Kunstgefiihl " (Mengs, K.Ph. Moritz, Heinse) — would have been illuminating. Moreover, the author's condemnation of the influence of antiquity as pernicious to the growth of originality in the creative arts seems exaggerated. For, had Germany been as powerful in this respect as she was in literature and music, Greek beauty would here also have proved only a salutary discipline. The rich and suggestive contents of this book are not uniformly presented in satisfactory style. At times the author, in his anxiety to go to the cause beyond the phenomenon, is not sufficiently concrete in his presentation {cf. " Einleitung ", also pp. 466, 585, etc.). Here and