Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 65.djvu/88

84 Church, of which he was pastor, while at the same time a professor in the university. By many he is thought to be second to no philosopher in Germany save Leibniz. As an interpreter of others' thought and in his ability to present it in new forms he had no rival. Through him Spinoza and Plato spoke directly to German scholars. But all his power was exerted in ethical and spiritual directions. Patriotic to the last degree, a lover of beauty in art and literature, deeply interested in the advancement of science, he was easily the most prominent man in Berlin, and though his energies were exercised in many fields he did not fail to direct the thought and determine the activity of the period

in which he lived. By his side and that of the noble group of men just named, should be placed Savigny, student and interpreter of law, who with Kant, Fichte and Schleiermacher introduced a new ethic into German life and gave a new character to the nineteenth century.

But this development, important and valuable as it was, was not altogether friendly to the development of purely scientific studies. The academy was chiefly interested in historical and literary, esthetic and ethical studies. At the same time it was not hostile to science. Only that did not have the first place in its thought. Nevertheless,