PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE.
PHILOSOPHY IN FRANCE.—Victor Cousin (1792—1867), a brilliant thinker and eloquent lecturer and writer, founded in France the eclectic school of philosophy. He aimed to construct a positive view on the basis of previous systems, which he classified under four heads,—idealism, sensualism, skepticism, and mysticism. In his teaching, he sought a middle path between the German and the Scottish schools, leaning now more decidedly to the one, and now to the other. Jouffroy (1796-1842), the most prominent of Cousin's disciples, but more exact and methodical than his master, wrote instructively, especially on aesthetics and moral philosophy. Philosophy in France took an altogether different direction in the hands of Auguste Comte (1798-1857), the founder of the positivist school. He taught that we know only phenomena, or things as manifested to our consciousness, and know nothing either of first causes, efficient causes, or of final causes (or design). We are limited to the ascertaining of facts by observation and experiment, which we register according to their likeness or unlikeness, and their chronological relation, or the order of their occurrence in time.
SCOTTISH PHILOSOPHY.—The most distinguished expounder of the Scottish philosophy, and the most learned of that whole school, was Sir William Hamilton (1788-1856). He maintained the doctrine of natural realism,—that we have a direct, "face to face" perception of external things. He held that the range of the mind's power of conceptive thought lies between two inconceivables, one of which must be real. Thus we can not conceive of free-will (which would be a new beginning), nor can we conceive of an endless series of causes. Free-will—and the same is true of the fundamental truths of religion—is verified to us as real by our moral nature. A Scottish writer of ability, who, however, opposed the peculiar tenets of the Scottish school, was Ferrier (1808-1864). Among the other philosophical writers of Scotland, affiliated, but with different degrees of dissent, with the school of Reid and Hamilton, are Professors Fraser and Calderwood, and the late James McCosh.
PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLAND.—More allied to the philosophy of Hume and of Comte are the metaphysical theories of John Stuart Mill (1806-1873). Intuitions were regarded by Mill as the impression produced by a frequent conjunction of like experiences, and thus to be the product of sensation. Causation was resolved into the invariable association of phenomena, by which an expectation is created that seems instinctive. Another writer of the same general tendency, who seeks for the explanation of knowledge in the materials furnished by the senses, is Alexander Bain, a Scottish author, versed in physiology. Herbert Spencer constructed a general system of philosophy on the basis of the theory of evolution. He holds that our knowledge is limited to phenomena, which are the manifestation in our consciousness of things which in themselves are unknown; and that behind and below all is "the Unknowable,"—an inscrutable force, out of which the universe of matter and mind is developed, and which gives to it unity and coherence.
PHILOSOPHY IN GERMANY.—In Germany the decline of the school of Hegel was succeeded by a sort of anarchy in philosophy. Herbart (1776-1841), a contemporary of Hegel, framed a system antagonistic to Hegelian idealism. Among numerous metaphysical authors, each of whom has a "standpoint" of his own, are the justly distinguished names of Fichte (the younger), Ulrici, Trendelenburg, and Hermann Lotze. Lotze. in his Microcosm, has unfolded, in a style attractive to the general reader, profound and genial views of man, nature, and religion. A remarkable phenomenon in German speculation is "pessimism,"—the doctrine gravely propounded in the systems of Schopenhauer and E. Von Hartmann, that the world is radically and essentially evil, and personal existence a curse from which the refuge is in the hope of annihilation. In its view of the world as springing from an unconscious force, and of the extinction of consciousness as the state of bliss, as well as in its notions of evil as inwrought in the essence of things, this philosophy is a revival of Indian Oriental speculation. Historical and critical writings in the department of philosophy abound in Germany. The histories of philosophy by Ritter, Erdmann, Zeller, Kuno Fischer, and Lange, are works of remarkable merit.
PHILOSOPHY IN ITALY.—Among the Italian metaphysicians, the two writers who are most noteworthy are Rosmini (1797-1855), who taught idealism; and Gioberti (1801-1882), whose system is on a different basis,—a gifted writer who was equally conspicuous as a statesman and a philosopher.
PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNITED STATES.—Philosophy in America has been zealously cultivated, both in connection with theology and apart from it, by a considerable number of teachers and writers. Among them are James Marsh, C. S. Henry, Francis Wayland, L. P. Hickok, H. B. Smith, and other eminent authors, mostly of a more recent date.
POLITICAL ECONOMY.—Ricardo (1772-1823), who followed Adam Smith (p. 492), dealt more in abstractions and processes of logic, than his predecessor. The writings of Ricardo, together with the discussions of Malthus (1766-1834) on population,—in which it was maintained that the tendency to an increase of population outstrips the increase of the means of subsistence,—led to numerous other writings.
Political economy was handled in productions by James Mill (1821), J. R. McCulloch, N. W. Senior (1790-1864), R. Torrens (1780-1864), Harriet Martineau (1802-1876), Thomas Chalmers, the celebrated Scottish divine, Archbishop Richard Whately, Richard Jones (1790-1855), a critic of the system of Ricardo, and others. An eminent writer, an expositor with important modifications of the Ricardian teaching, is John Stuart Mill (1806-1873). Fawcett and other able authors have followed for the most part in Mill's path. An English author of distinction in this field is J. E. Cairnes (1824-1875). The French school of economists have adhered to the principles of Adam Smith much more than have the Germans. Among the most noted of the French authors in this field are Say (1767-1832), whose views are founded on those of Smith; Sismondi (1773-1842), who, however, departs from the English doctrine, and favors the intervention of government to "regulate the progress of wealth"; Dunoyer (1786-1862); Bastiat (1801-1850), one of the most brilliant advocates of free-trade; Cournot (1801-1877), who applies, with much acumen, mathematics to economical questions. In America, since the days of Franklin and Hamilton, both of whom wrote instructively on these topics, a number of writers of ability have appeared. Among them are H. C. Carey, who opposes the views of Ricardo and Malthus, and defends the theory of protection; Francis Bowen, also a protectionist; F. A. Walker, Perry, etc. In Italy, there have not been wanting productions of marked acuteness in this department. Of the numerous German writers, one of the most eminent is List (1798-1846), a critic of Adam Smith, and not an adherent of the unqualified doctrine of free-trade. In the list of later English writers, the names of Bagehot, Leslie, Jevons, and Sidgwick are quite prominent. With regard to free-trade and protection, the latter doctrine has been maintained in two forms. Some have regarded protection as the best permanent policy for a nation to adopt. Others have defended it as a provisional policy, to shield manufactures in their infancy, until they grow strong enough to compete, without help, with foreign products. After the repeal of the corn-laws in England (1846), the free-trade doctrine prevailed in England. Since Comte published his exposition of Sociology (1839), the tendency has arisen to consider political economy as one branch of this broader theme. With it the controversies pertaining to socialism are intimately connected.
The disciples of Adam Smith have contended for the non-intervention of governments in the industrial pursuits of the people. They are to be left to the natural desire of wealth, and the natural exercise of competition in the pursuit of it. The prevalent theories of socialism are directly hostile to this—called the laissez-faire—principle. Socialists would make government the all-regulative agent, the owner of land and of the implements of labor.
ENGLISH ESSAYISTS.—In literature the later time has seen an extraordinary multiplying of periodicals and newspapers, among whose editors and contributors have been included numerous writers of much celebrity. In Great Britain, several famous authors first acquired distinction mainly by historical and critical articles in reviews. This is true of Thomas Babington Macaulay and Thomas Carlyle. Each of them became a historian. Macaulay, an ardent Whig, with an astonishing familiarity with political and literary facts, wrote in a spirited and brilliant style a History of England from the Accession of James II. to the death of his hero, William III. Carlyle, with a unique force of imagination and a rugged intensity of feeling, original in his thought, yet strongly affected by German literature, especially by Richter and Goethe, wrote in his earlier days a Life of Schiller. He wrote later a history of the French Revolution, in which the scenes of that tragic epoch are depicted with dramatic vividness; and a copious History of Frederick the Great. Among the most characteristic of his writings are his Heroes and Hero-Worship; the "Latter-Day Pamphlets," in which is poured out his contempt of democracy; and the Life of John Sterling,—the counterpart of a biography of Sterling, written in a different vein by a learned and scholarly divine, Julius Hare.
Of essayists in a lighter, discursive vein, one of the most popular, who has already been referred to (p. 544), was the Scottish writer, John Wilson (1785-1854), the author of numerous tales and criticisms, and of diverting papers written under the name of "Christopher North." Without the fancy and humor of Wilson, yet master of a style keeping within the limits of prose while verging on poetry, was Thomas De Quincey, the author of The Confessions of an Opium Eater, Essays on the Roman Emperors, etc.
HISTORICAL WRITINGS IN ENGLAND.—The literature of history has been enriched by British authors with important works besides those named above. Grote and Thirlwall each composed histories of Greece which are the fruit of thorough and enlightened scholarship. The work of Grote is a vindication of the Athenian democracy, a view the antipode of that taken in the work on Grecian history by Mitford. An elaborate work on the History of the Romans under the Empire is one of several historical productions of Charles Merivale. Stanhope [Lord Mahon] composed a narrative of the War of the Spanish Succession, and other useful histories. Sir W. F. P. Napier wrote a History of the War in the Peninsula, in which the campaigns of Wellington in Spain are described by an author who took part in them. The constitutional history of England has been treated with satisfactory learning and judgment by Hallam, May, and Stubbs. The Puritan revolution has been described with masterly skill and judicial fairness by S. R. Gardiner. In the earlier field, Mr. Edward A. Freeman labored with distinguished success, the History of the Norman Conquest being his principal work in this branch of historical inquiry. J. R. Green is the author of an attractive history of the English people. J. A. Froude wrote with engaging literary art a History of England in the Reign of Elizabeth, which attempts, in the preliminary part, an apology for the character and conduct of Henry VIII. Spencer Walpole has written a History of England since 1815. Ramsay has written the Foundations of England, Angevin England, Lancaster, and York. John Hill Burton, a Scottish author, educated as a lawyer, composed vigorously written histories of Scotland and of the reign of Queen Anne. Lecky wrote in a pleasing style a History of England in the Eighteenth Century, besides a History of Rationalism in Europe, and a History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne. In ecclesiastical history, Milman, whose leading work is the History of Latin Christianity, Dean Stanley, and Bishop Creighton have been the principal writers.
ENGLISH NOVELISTS.—The series of "Waverley novels" by Walter Scott (1771-1832) had an unbounded popularity. Pervaded by a cheerful, healthy tone, they presented fascinating pictures of life and manners, and kindled a fresh sympathy with the Middle Ages and with the spirit of chivalry. The poems of Scott depicted, in a metrical form, like picturesque scenes, and knightly combats and adventures. The fictions of Scott gave rise to a school of writers, one of whom was G. P. R. James (1801-1860). A new and different type of novel appeared, in connection with which the names of Dickens (1812-1870) and Thackeray (1811-1863) are preëminent. Both are humorists; in Dickens especially, humor runs into broad caricature. Both present pictures of society and of common life. They illustrate the tendency of the novel at present to rely for its attraction upon scenes and incidents of ordinary life, and the minute portraiture of manners and of character. Dickens owes his popularity largely to the unique sort of drollery and the genuine pathos that are mingled in his pages. Thackeray is a satirist, with a keen eye to detect the weaknesses of humanity, but with a deep well of sympathy, veiled, however, and sedulously guarded from sentimentalism, by a tone of banter and a semblance of cynicism. Measured by their popularity with the cultivated class, the novels of Mrs. Lewes (George Eliot) stand next in rank to the productions last referred to. In some of her tales, the artistic motive and spirit are qualified by the didactic aim, or the underlying "tendency,"—the purpose to teach, or to promote a favorite cause,—which has become a frequent characteristic in modern fiction. Among the other English novelists, Bulwer (1805-1873), whose later stories are free from the immorality that stains the earlier, is one of the most widely read. The novels of Charles Kingsley (1819-1875) are among the justly popular productions in this department. Among the novelists of the late Victorian Era were Charles Keade, Blackmore, Stevenson, Kipling, Meredith, Hardy, and Mrs. Humphry Ward.
ENGLISH POETS.—Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892), the author of The Princess, In Memoriam, and the Idylls of the King, held the first place among the poets of his day. An adept in the metrical art, he combines in these mature productions, with terseness of diction and fresh, striking imagery, deep reflection and sympathy with the intellectual questionings and yearnings of the time. In his lyrical poems the fullness of his power is seen. He was, without question, a consummate literary artist. Browning (1812-1889), careless of rhythmical art, with a defiance of form, but with dramatic power, in his descent to "the under-currents" of the soul, placed himself open to the reproach of obscurity. Among English poets of high merit in the recent period stand the names of the delightful humorist Thomas Hood (1798-1845), Arthur Clough (1819-1861), and more recently, Matthew Arnold (1822-1888).
With this reference to the poets may be coupled the name of the most eloquent and suggestive of the English writers on art, John Ruskin.
THEOLOGY IN ENGLAND.—Theological scholarship in Great Britain, after a long season of partial eclipse, again shone forth in the present period. Critical works relating to the Scriptures have been produced, which are on a level with the best Continental learning. About 1833, there began at Oxford what has been called the "Tractarian movement," from a series of "Tracts for the Times," relating to theology and the Church, which were issued by its promoters. The party thus originating were called "Puseyites," as Dr. Edward Pusey (1800-1882), the author of learned commentaries, and of works in other departments of divinity, was their acknowledged leader. They formed one branch of the class called "High Churchmen." They laid great emphasis on the doctrine of the "apostolic succession" of the ministry, the necessity and efficacy of the sacraments administered by them, and the importance of visible ecclesiastical unity. They claimed to stand in the "middle path" between the Church of England and the Church of Rome. One of the leading associates of Pusey was John Keble (1792-1866), the poet, author of The Christian Year. The most eminent writer in this group of theologians was John Henry Newman (1801-1890), who won general admiration by the subtlety of his genius and its rare felicity of expression. He entered the Church of Rome, and was advanced to the rank of a cardinal. One of the principal literary undertakings of the recent period is the Revision of the Authorized Version of the Bible, by associated companies of English and American scholars. In the long catalogue of influential writers in theology, it is practicable to refer here to a few suggestive names. Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847) was equally noted as a glowing preacher, an eloquent defender of the Christian faith, and a lucid expounder of the Calvinistic system. Edward Irving (1792-1834) was a pulpit orator of unsurpassed eloquence in his day, whose peculiar view as to the restoration of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, that were granted in the apostolic age, gave rise to a religious body calling itself the "Catholic Apostolic Church." Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872) was one of the leaders of the "liberal," or "Broad Church," portion of the English Episcopal Church. His writings have exerted a strong influence. In the same general direction, but of a more critical and argumentative tone, were Richard Whately (1787-1863), Archbishop of Dublin; and Thomas Arnold, who, in addition to his influence as a teacher, classical scholar, and historian, engaged actively in discussions on the questions relating to Church and State.
LITERATURE IN AMERICA: POEMS AND TALES.—The period which we are now considering witnessed a gratifying development of belles-lettres and historical literature in the United States. At the outset, two writers appeared who acquired a transatlantic fame. Washington Irving (1783-1859) in 1818 published The Sketch Book, in a series of pamphlets. It had been preceded by Knickerbocker's History of New York and other humorous publications. Among his later writings were included the Life of Columbus, the Life of Mohammed, and the Life of Washington. The refinement and charm of his style, which brought back the simplicity of Goldsmith, satisfied the foreign critics who had ridiculed the florid rhetoric of previous American authors. James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) published The Spy, the first of his novels, which attracted much attention, in 1821. This was followed, two years later, by The Pioneers, the first of the famous "Leatherstocking" series of novels, in which Indian life and manners were portrayed. Cooper was also the founder of the "sea-novel," a line of fiction in which he was followed by an English writer, Marryat (1792-1848). Richard H. Dana and Fitz-Greene Halleck were poets who had a much higher than the merely negative merit of freedom from tumidity, the bane of the earlier American bards. Not only in verse, but also in his prose tales, Dana manifested genius. Several later poets, acknowledged at home and abroad, well deserve the name. Such are Bryant (1794-1878), whose poems, pensive and elevated in their tone, lack neither vigor nor finish; Longfellow (1807-1882), a poet of exquisite culture, whose purity of sentiment, as well as polish and melody of diction, have made him a favorite in both Europe and America; Whittier (1807-1892), whose spirited productions are pervaded with a glowing love of liberty and humanity. Lowell (1819-1891) has justly earned fame as a poet and a critic; and, as a poet, in both serious and humorous compositions. The "Biglow Papers" are without a rival in the species of humor that characterize them. Distinction as a poet and a prose writer belongs likewise to Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894), who was especially successful as an author of "poems of society." Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), faulty in his moral spirit as he was wayward in his conduct, exhibited, both in his poems and tales, which are unique in their character, the traits of a wild and somber genius. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), admired as a poet, but more generally as an essayist, valuing insight above logic, has commented on nature, man, and literature with so rare a penetration and felicity of expression that Matthew Arnold has placed his productions on a level with the Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. In the list of American novelists the foremost name is that of Nathaniel Hawthorne. In his romances the subtle analysis of the workings of conscience and sensibility, in particular the obscure—including the morbid-action of these powers, is combined with perfection of style and of literary art. The novels of Harriet Beecher Stowe, especially those which relate to slavery and depict negro character, have had a world-wide currency. Among other novelists were Paulding and Sedgwick, and more recently, Howells, James, Bret Harte, Cable, and Aldrich. The most distinguished humorist has been S. M. Clemens (Mark Twain).
Good work has been done by Americans in literary history and criticism. The History of Spanish Literature, by George Ticknor, is the fruit of many years of labor by a competent scholar.
HISTORICAL WRITINGS IN AMERICA.—Creditable works have been produced in America in the department of historical literature. The lives of Washington and Franklin, and other biographical and historical writings of much value, have been composed or edited by Jared Sparks. George Bancroft (1800-1891) published, in successive editions, the results of extensive researches in the history of the United States. Works on the same subject have been published by Richard Hildreth and many others. John G. Palfrey is the author of an excellent history of New England. William H. Prescott by his History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, his histories of Spanish conquest in America, and his fragment on the reign of Philip II. of Spain, has deservedly attained to a high distinction on both sides of the Atlantic. The same may be said of John Lothrop Motley (1814-1877), in his Rise and Progress of the Dutch Republic. The history of French colonization and of the contests of France in America has been detailed with thoroughness and skill by Francis Parkman. Other prominent writers have been John Fiske, Justin Winsor, Henry. Adams, James F. Rhodes, and A. T. Mahan.
AMERICAN WRITERS ON LAW ANS POLITICS.—American writers on law embrace names of world-wide celebrity. Among them are Henry Wheaton, in international law, a science to which Woolsey and Lawrence have made valuable contributions; James Kent, whose Commentaries on American Law is a work held in high honor by the legal profession; and Joseph Story, a jurist and legal writer of distinguished merit. The speeches and other productions of Webster, Calhoun, Clay, John Quincy Adams, Edward Everett, Seward, Sumner, form a valuable body of political writings. The works of Francis Lieber, a German by birth, and the treatise on Political Science by Theodore D. Woolsey, are important contributions to the branch of knowledge to which they relate.
PHILOLOGY IN AMERICA.—On the catalogue of students of language, the name of Noah Webster (1758-1843) is prominent, through his English Dictionary, the fruit of many years of arduous labor; a work that since his death has appeared in successive and improved editions. Another successful laborer in the same field was Joseph E. Worcester (1784-1865), likewise the author of a copious and valuable lexicon of the English language. George P. Marsh, an erudite Scandinavian scholar, wrote also on the Origin and History of the English Language. In the departments of classical learning, of Oriental study, and of general philology, there have appeared other American authors of acknowledged merit, e.g. William D. Whitney.
THEOLOGY IN AMERICA.—Theology has been cultivated with much fruit by a large number of preachers and authors, of different religious bodies. Moses Stuart, by his commentaries on Biblical books, and Edward Robinson, especially through his published Travels in the Holy Land, were widely known. Charles Hodge, long a professor at Princeton; Nathaniel W. Taylor, who broached modifications of the Calvinistic system; Henry B. Smith, an acute and learned theologian; and Horace Bushnell,—are among the influential authors on the Protestant side. To these should be added the name of William Ellery Channing, the most prominent leader of the Unitarians, equally distinguished as a preacher and as a philanthropist.
The Unitarian movement in New England, which began in the early part of the nineteenth century, included other theological writers, one of the most learned and scholarly of whom was Andrews Norton (1786-1853). Theodore Parker (1810-1860) subsequently went so far in his divergence from received views as to reject miracle and supernatural revelation altogether. He was one of the most vigorous combatants in the warfare carried on through the press and in the pulpit against slavery. Out of the Unitarian school there came a class of cultured writers in literature and criticism, of whom George Ripley (1802-1880) was a representative. The "transcendentalists," as they were popularly styled, with whom these were often at the outset affiliated, were much influenced by contemporary French and German authors and speculations. Emerson, was the most prominent writer in this vaguely defined class. A periodical called "The Dial" was issued by them.
One of the most ingenious and active-minded thinkers in the Roman Catholic Church was Orestes A. Brownson, a prolific author on topics of religion and philosophy.
LITERATURE IN GERMANY.—The German mind has been so productive in almost all branches of literary effort, that the annual issues of the German press have numbered many thousands. The political condition of Germany until a recent date was such as to attract large numbers to the pursuits of literature and science. It is possible to allude to but few of the principal authors. In imaginative literature, Heinrich Heine (1799-1856), of Jewish extraction, was a most witty yet irreverent satirist, and one of the principal song-writers of modern times. Gustav Freytag has written some of the best of the later German novels. Auerbach, Keller, and Spielhagen stand very high on the roll of novelists. Of numerous recent poets, Lenau and Freiligrath are among the few best esteemed. In the long catalogue of German historical writers, to whom the world owes a debt, are found the names of Schlosser (1776-1861), Heeren (1760-1842), Raumer (1781-1873); Ranke, whose numerous works are based on original researches, and are written with masterly skill; Gervinus, a critic as well as historian; Von Sybel, Droysen, Duncker, Weber, Giesebrecht, Mommsen, Curtius, Treitschke. A powerful impulse was given to the study of history by Niebuhr (1776-1831). German researches have been carried into every region of the past. In Egyptology, Lipsius, Bunsen, Brugsch, and Ebers are leading authorities. Neander, Gieseler, Baur, Döllinger, Hefele, Alzog, Harnack, Janssen, and Pastor are writers on ecclesiastical history. German travelers have explored many of the countries of the globe. Schliemann has uncovered the ruins of Troy. In mathematics and the natural sciences, in philology and criticism, in philosophy, in law and the political sciences, and in the different branches of theology, the world acknowledges its debt to the patient, methodical investigations and the exhaustive discussions of German students during the nineteenth century.
THEOLOGY IN GERMANY.—The history of religious thought in Germany includes the successive phases of rationalism, or that general theory which makes the human understanding, apart from supernatural revelation, the chief or the exclusive source of religious knowledge, and the umpire in controversies. In the age of Frederick II., the Anglo-French deism was widely diffused (p. 493). Lessing; the genial poet and critic (1729-1781), allied himself to no party. In his work on The Education of the Human Race, he set forth the view that the Scriptures have a high providential purpose as an instrument for the religious training of mankind, but that their essential contents are ultimately verified by reason on grounds of its own; so that the prop of authority eventually becomes needless, and falls away. Not radically different was the position of Kant (p. 545), who gave rise to a school of theologians that for a time flourished. This school made the essential thing in Christianity to be its morality. With Semler (1721-1791), the rationalistic Biblical criticism took its rise. From that day, a host of scholars have engaged in the investigation of the origin and interpretation of the Bible, and of the early history of Christianity. A middle position between the established orthodoxy and the Kantian rationalism was taken by Frederick Schleiermacher (1768-1834), a man of genius, alike eminent as a critic, philosopher, and theologian. He placed the foundation of religion in the feeling of absolute dependence. In laying stress on feeling as at the root of piety, he had been preceded by the philosopher Jacobi. From the impulse given by Schleiermacher, there sprung up an intermediate school of theologians, many of whom departed less than he from the traditional Protestant creed. This they professed to undertake to revise in accordance with the results of the scientific study of the Bible and of history. In their number belong Neander, Nitzsch, Twesten, Tholuck, J. Müller, Dorner, Rothe, Bleek, Ullman, and many other influential authors and teachers. In the department of Biblical criticism, Ewald, Tischendorf, Meyer, Weiss, are among the names of German theological scholars which are familiar to Biblical students in all countries. The critical works of De Wette (1780-1849) were extensively studied. The philosophy of _Hegel_connected itself with a new form of rationalism, which found expression in the Life of Jesus, by Strauss, published in 1835, in which the Gospel miracles were treated as myths; and in the writings of Ferdinand Christian Baur, in connection with his followers of the "Tubingen School," who attempted to resolve primitive Christianity into a natural growth out of preëxisting conditions, and held that the historical books of the New Testament were the product of different theological "tendencies" and parties in the apostolic and the subsequent age. The Roman Catholic system has not lacked in Germany able defenders, one of the most noted of whom was Möhler, the author of Symbolism (Symbolik), an ingenious polemical work in opposition to Protestantism.
PHILOLOGY AND LAW IN GERMANY.—Classical philology was founded as a science by Heyne (1729-1812) and Wolf (1759-1824). Their work was carried forward by G. Hermann (1772-1848), Buttmann (1764-1829), Jacobs (1764-1847), K. O. Muller (1797-1840), and by numerous contemporaries and successors of these. By this succession of scholars, not only have the tongues of Greece and Rome been accurately learned and taught, but classical antiquity has been thoroughly explored. Comparative philology, under the hands of Bopp (1791-1867), of Lassen (1800-1876), a Norwegian by birth, of W. von Humboldt (1767-1835), of Pott (born in 1802), of Schleicher (1821-1868), and their coadjutors, has grown to be a fruitful science. In the study of the German language and early literature, J. Grimm (1785-1863), W. Grimm (1786-1859), Lachmann (1793-1851), Simrock (1802-1878), have been among the pioneers. The study of law, especially of Roman law, was placed on a new foundation by the labors of Savigny (1779-1861), while a like thoroughness was brought to the exposition of German law by Mittermaier and others. In political science, Mohl (1779-1875), Bluntschli (1808-1881), Stahl (1802-1861), and Gneist (1816-1895) gained a worldwide celebrity.
LITERATURE IN FRANCE.—A class of vigorous young writers in France broke loose from the restraints of the "classical" school and its patterns, and composed dramas in the more free method of the "romantic" school. They drew their ideas of the drama from Shakspeare, rather than from Corneille. Among these writers were Alexandre Dumas, a most prolific novelist as well as writer of plays; and the celebrated poet and dramatist, Victor Hugo. The romances of Dumas comprise more than a hundred volumes. In his historical novels, incidents and characters without number crowd upon the scene, but without confusion, while the narrative maintains an unfailing vivacity. Of the authors of light and witty comedies, Scribe is one of the most fertile. George Sand (Mme. Dudevant) is one of the principal novel-writers of the age. Eugene Sue and Balzac are both popular authors in this department. The leading poets are the song-writer Béranger, Lamartine, Victor Hugo, and Alfred de Musset. With the close of the first half-century romanticism began to give way before realism, from which, however, there was a reaction before the century closed. Among the greater poets are Sully-Prudhomme and Coppée; among the novelists, Daudet, Zola, Maupassant, and Bourget. In history some writers, as Villemain, are remarkable for their power of descriptive narrative; others, like Guizot, for their breadth of philosophical reflection, superadded to deep researches. Some, like Augustin Thierry, in his work on the Middle Ages, combined both elements. His brother, Amédée Thierry, depicted the state of society in Gaul and other countries in the period of the fall of the Roman Empire. Barante composed an interesting history of the Dukes of Burgundy. Among those, besides Guizot, who treated of the history of France, Sismondi, the spirited Michelet, and the thorough and dispassionate Henri Martin are specially eminent. Thiers, Mignet, Louis Blanc, Taine, and Lanfrey wrote on the Revolution or Napoleon. The most eminent of the newer school of scientific historians are Boissier, Sorel, Lavisse, Luchaire, and Aulard. In political economy and the science of politics, Chevalier, De Tocqueville (the author of Democracy in America), and Bastiat are among the writers widely read beyond the limits of France. Sainte-Beuve is only one of the foremost in the class of literary critics, in which are included Renan, Sarcey, Brunetière, Lemaître, Faguet, and others, themselves authors. The clearness of exposition which goes far to justify the claim of the French to be the interpreters of European science to the world, appears in numerous treatises in mathematics and physics. The qualities of lucid arrangement, transparency of style, and terseness of language have extended, however, to other branches of authorship; so that the French have presented a fair claim to precedence in the literary art.
SWEDEN AND RUSSIA.—There are Swedish authors who are well known in other countries. Such are the historian Geijer (1783-1847); and the novelist Fredrika Bremer, who wrote "The Neighbors," and other tales. The most famous of the Russian novelists is Ivan Turgenejff, some of whose stories contain admirable pictures of Russian life.
ARCHITECTURE.—The nineteenth century witnessed in Germany, France, and England a revival of the ancient or classic styles of architecture. This appears, for example, in edifices at Munich, and in such buildings as St. George's Hall at Liverpool. But a reaction arose against this tendency, and in behalf of the Gothic style, which is exemplified in the new Houses of Parliament in London. Many Gothic churches have been erected in Great Britain. Many-storied office buildings are characteristic of America.
SCULPTURE AND PAINTING.—One of the most original of modern sculptors was Schwanthaler (1802-1848), who carved the pediments of the Walhalla at Munich, and the bronze statue of Bavaria. French sculptors at the present day are fully on a level with the recent sculptors of Italy. Chantrey (1788-1841) and John Gibson (1791-1866), a pupil of Canova and himself an original mind, are high on the roll of English sculptors. A genius for sculpture appeared among Americans, and to the names of Powers and Crawford, of Story, Brown, and Ward, the names of other meritorious artists in this province might justly be added. The German national school of painting had Overbeck for its most eminent founder. Cornelius (1783-1867) revived the art of fresco-painting, and established the Munich school. Von Kaulbach, who painted the "Battle of the Huns" in the Berlin Museum, was one of his pupils. W. von Schadow is the founder of the Düsseldorf school. One of his eminent pupils was K. F. Lessing. Still more recent are Ad. Menzel, Liberman, and Lenbach. In Great Britain, Constable (1796-1837) painted English landscapes full of thought and feeling, and gave a fresh impulse to this branch of art. Stanfleld (1788-1864) was a master of the realistic school, which aims at a simple and faithful representation of the landscape to be depicted. Wilkie, a Scotchman (1785-1841), was chief among the genre painters, of whom Leslie (1794-1859), by birth an American, was one of the most forcible and refined. Eastlake (1793-1865) was a writer on art, as well as a painter. Landseer (1802-1873) was unrivaled as an animal painter. William Hunt (1790-1864) had decided skill as a painter in water-colors. The pre-Raphaelite school, professing to go back of Raphael to nature, included Turner, Hunt, Millais, and Burne-Jones. Other prominent artists have been Herkomer, Leighton, and Alma-Tadema. In France, Paul Delaroche (1797-1856) followed in the path of Horace Vernet (1789-1863), as a painter of battle-pieces and other modern historical scenes. Ary Scheffer (1795-1858), a Dutchman by birth, painted in a graceful and pathetic tone "Christ the Consoler," and other sacred subjects. The more recent French school, comprising Delacroix, Meissonier, Gérome, Cabanel, Millet, Rosa Bonheur, an artist of masculine vigor, the famous painter of animal pictures,—is distinguished for technical skill and finish, but also for a bold and peculiar method of treatment. Among the leading landscape-painters of this school, Corot, Daubigny, Rousseau, Diaz, are conspicuous. Still more recent are Bastien-Lepage, Chavannes, Bréton, Bouguereau, Dagnan-Bouveret, Lhermitte, Jean-Paul Laurens, and Dupré.
About the year 1825 an American school of landscape-painters was founded by Thomas Cole, many of whose pictures were allegorical. Durand is one of those who excelled in landscape painting. In other provinces of the art, Peale, Weir, Huntington, Page, Morse, Chase, Whistler, Sargent, Abbey; in landscape, Gifford, Kensett, Church, Bierstadt, McEntee, Inness, Winslow Homer, well represent what is best and most characteristic in the later productions of American painters.
MUSIC.—In music, Germany in the nineteenth century held the palm. Schubert, Spohr, Weber, Meyerbeer, and Wagner are names of world-wide celebrity, while in the works of Mendelssohn (1809-1849) and Schumann (1810-1856) the art of music reached its climax. Chopin (1810-1849), the founder of a new style of piano-forte music, was born in Poland: his father, however, was French.