the preponderance; but since then, the balance, at least in science,
has been completely restored. I speak here of internal religious
principles, and not of outward confessions of faith, which cannot be
made the criterion for a philosophic classification. For otherwise by
descending into details, I might cite, among the few quite irreligious
organs of German philosophy, some writers (happily rare exceptions)
who belonged to Catholic Germany; and on the other hand, among those
foremost and most distinguished in reviving the pure Platonic
philosophy, and whose profound religious conceptions have given quite
a Christian form to natural philosophy itself, I might adduce the
names of men who were members of the Protestant church. Philosophy
itself has not to determine, nor to illustrate religious dogmas, nor
does it stand in immediate connection with them. The main point to
which I wish to direct attention, and which is necessary to render
philosophy Christian; is that an internal harmony or unison should be
preserved between faith and science; next that the principle of
divine revelation should be regarded as the basis, not only of
theology but of every other science; and lastly, that even nature
herself should be studied and investigated by this high religious
light, and thus made to receive from science a new and transparent
lustre. The modern German philosophy even in its infancy, when it was
yet pretty closely allied to the English school, and mostly started
with the same problems (though it gave to these a deeper and a wider
solution), aimed at this harmony between faith and science. It
understood both indeed in the very limited sense of a mere faith of
reason and science of reason, influenced as it was by the Rationalism
then so generally diffused, not only in Protestant but even in
Catholic countries, and notably in Catholic Germany. But at the same
time other profound thinkers sought another and higher foundation for
philosophy in the idea of revelation; a revelation which some
understood in a mere general and speculative, though not irreligious,
sense--and others in the Christian sense of positive faith and pious
feeling. The capital vice of German philosophy is the absolute--the
philosophic reflection of the general vice of the spirit of the age,
which exerts an absolute influence on life itself--whether this vice
of German philosophy assume the form of the absolute ego,[27] or that
of the Pantheistic naturalism,[28] or that of absolute reason.[29] It
is this which originally gave to the natural philosophy of the Germans
a false Pantheistic direction, for the real materialism which has
found so many advocates among the French Naturalists, has from the
very ideal tendency of the German mind, experienced little favour in
Germany. Yet this foreign influence was not of long continuance--German
physics became deeply imbued with a religious spirit, and the German
natural philosophy is now in the hands of its first representatives
decidedly Christian. And this progress in the great work of the
religious regeneration of science, I must consider as the noblest
triumph of genius, for it is precisely in the department of physics
the problem was the most difficult; and all that rich and boundless
treasure of new discoveries in nature, which are ever better
understood when viewed in connection with the high truths of religion,
must be looked upon as the property of Christian science. The various
systems of philosophic Rationalism, mutually subversive, as they are,
of each other, will fall to the ground, and the vulgar Rationalism
which is but an emanation of the higher, and which still prevails in
some particular schools, and in many of the lower walks of German
literature, will finally disappear; in proportion as German philosophy
becomes imbued with the spirit of religion, and German science becomes
thoroughly Christian, or Catholic. In the firm hope that this will
certainly happen, I have given publicity to these first essays of a
philosophy I had long in secret prepared; and of which the first part,
"the Philosophy of Life," treats of consciousness, or of the inward
man: the second, "this Philosophy of History," which I now have here
brought to a close, considers the outward man, or the progress of
states and nations through all ages of the world.
That in this progress of mankind, a divine Hand and conducting
Providence are clearly discernible; that earthly and visible power has
not alone co-operated in this progress, and in the opposition which
has impeded it; but that the struggle has been in part carried on
under divine, and against invisible might;--is a truth, I trust, which
if not proved to mathematical evidence, (an evidence here neither
appropriate nor applicable), has still been substantiated on firm and
solid grounds. We may conclude our work, by a retrospective view of
society, considered in reference to that invisible world and higher
region, from which the operations of this visible world proceed, in
which its great destinies have their root, and which is the ultimate
and highest term of all its movements.
Christianity is the emancipation of the human race from the bondage of
that inimical spirit, who denies God, and, as far as in him lies,
leads all created intelligences astray. Hence the Scripture styles
him, "the Prince of this world;" and so he was in fact, but in ancient
history only, when among all the nations of the earth, and amid the
pomp of martial glory, and the splendour of Pagan life, he had
established the throne of his domination. Since this divine era in the
history of man, since the commencement of his emancipation in modern
times, this spirit can no longer be called the prince of this world,
but the _spirit of time_, the spirit opposed to divine influence,
and to the Christian religion, apparent in those who consider and
estimate time and all things temporal, not by the law and feeling of
eternity, but for temporal interests or from temporal motives, change,
or undervalue, and forget the thoughts and faith of eternity.
In the first ages of the Christian church, this spirit of time
appeared as a beguiling sectarian spirit. This spirit obtained its
highest triumph in the new and false faith of a fanatic Unitarianism,
utterly opposed to the religion of love, and which severed from
Christianity so large a portion of the Eastern church, and whole
regions of Asia. In the middle ages this spirit displayed itself, not
so much in hostile sects, as in scholastic disputes, in divisions
between church and state, and in the internal disorders of both. At
the commencement of the new era of the world, the spirit of time
claimed as an urgent want of mankind, full freedom of faith; a claim
of which the immediate consequence was only a bloody warfare, and a
fatal struggle of life and death protracted beyond a century. When
this struggle was terminated, or rather appeased, it was succeeded by
an utter indifference for all religions, provided only their morality
were good; and the spirit of time proclaimed religious _indifferentism_,
as the order of the day. This apparent calm was followed by the
revolutionary tempest, and now that this has passed away, the spirit
of time has in our days become absolute--that is to say, it has
perverted reason to party--passion, or exalted passion, to the place
of reason; and this is the existing form and last metamorphosis of the
old evil spirit of time.
Turning now to that Divine aid which has supported mankind in their
ever-enduring struggle against their own infirmities, against all the
obstacles of nature, and natural circumstances, and against the
opposition of the evil spirit; I have endeavoured to shew, that in the
first thousand years of Primitive History, Divine Revelation, although
preserved in its native purity but in the one original source, still
flowed in copious streams through the religious traditions of the
other great nations of that pristine epoch; and that troubled as the
current might be by the admixture of many errors, yet was it easy to
trace it in the midst of this slime and pollution, to its pure and
sacred source. And with such a belief must commence every religious
view of universal history. And it is only with this religious belief,
and perception of the traces of divine revelation, we can rightly
comprehend and judge this primitive epoch of history. We shall prize
with deeper, more earnest, and more solid affection, the great and
divine era of man's redemption and emancipation (occurring as it does
in the middle-point of human history), the more accurately we
discriminate between what is essentially divine and unchangeably
eternal in this revelation of love, and the elements of destruction
which man has opposed thereto, or intermingled therewith. And it is
only in the spirit of love, the history of Christian times can be
rightly understood and accurately judged. In later ages, when the
spirit of discord has triumphed over love, historical hope is our only
remaining clue in the labyrinth of history. It is only with sentiments
of grateful admiration, of amazement, and awe, we trace in the special
dispensations of providence, for the advancement of Christianity and
the progress of modern society, the wonderful concurrence of events
towards the single object of divine love, or the unexpected exercise
of divine justice long delayed; such as I have in the proper places
endeavoured to point out. With this faith in Primitive Revelation, and
in the glorious consummation of Christian love, I cannot better
conclude this "Philosophy of History," than with the religious hope I
have more than once expressed, and which is more particularly
applicable to these times--the dawn of an approaching era:--that by
the thorough religious regeneration of the state, and of science, the
cause of God and Christianity may obtain a complete triumph on the
earth.
[20] What a melancholy foreboding is contained in these
words!--_Trans._
[21] Austria.
[22] Prussia.
[23] Schlegel here conveys an indirect censure on the
Prussian government, for some acts of an intolerant
nature towards its Catholic subjects.--_Trans._
[24] This was spoken exactly two years before the
French Revolution of July, 1830.--_Trans._
[25] Austria.
[26] France.
[27] Schlegel alludes to the philosophy of Fichte,
which was _an ideal subjective Pantheism_.
[28] The author here alludes to the philosophy of
Schelling, which was more a material and objective
Pantheism, not unlike the system of Spinoza.
[29] This last expression contains, I believe, an
allusion to the philosophy of Hegel.--_Trans._
FINIS.
B. BENSLEY, PRINTER.
Transcriber's Note:
Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and moved to the end
of the lecture in which the related anchor appears. Words in
italics are surrounded by underscores, _like this_.
The items listed below were considered printer's errors and were
corrected as noted. Obsolete and archaic words and other spelling
errors were not changed.
Unprinted periods were added at end of sentences and abbreviations.
deleted duplicate 'being' ... hope of being able ...
'Seuvi' to 'Suevi' ... those of the Suevi and the Saxons,...
'vegetion' to 'vegetation' ... and blooming vegetation spread ...
'Asyrian' to 'Assyrian' ... the Assyrian Venus ...
'decended' to 'descended' ... light had descended ...
capitalized 'Latin' ... barbarous Latin,...
'and' to 'a' ... firmly to establish a new model society ...
moved comma inside close parenthesis ... of despotism,) will ...
'goverment' to 'government' ... the Christian government ...
two instances of 'Charlemange' to 'Charlemagne'
'constition' to 'constitution' ...peculiar nature and constitution ...
'aud' to 'and' ... and so active was their ...
'Christain' to 'Christian' ... manners and Christian institutions;...
removed hyphen from 'party-strife' ... a watch-word for party strife ...
'ecclesiastal' to ecclesiastical' ... ecclesiastical excommunication ...
'althongh' to 'although' ... although that idolatry,...
'inteterests' to 'interests' ... complication of the interests ...
'harmouy' to 'harmony' ... aimed at this harmony between ...
Footnote [6], added open quote to beginning of second paragraph.
capitalized 'Systema' ... Systema Theologicum of Leibnitz,...