Extensive was the domain embraced by German philosophy; new branches of knowledge had sprung up with surprising rapidity; there was scarce a bygone people in the most distant regions of the earth whose history, life, arts, and language were not investigated; above all, the past of Germany. With hearty warmth was every expression of our popular mind, of which there remained a trace, laid hold of. A wonderful richness of life of the olden time was discovered and understood in all its specialities. Round the German inquirer arose from the earth the spirits of nations which had once lived; he learnt to comprehend what was peculiar to each, what was common to all--the action of the human mind on the highest phenomena of the globe. Equally did the knowledge of objective nature increase. The history of the creation of the earth, the organism of everything created, the countless objects invisible to the naked eye, and the countless things which arise from the combination of simple substances, became known; and again, beyond the boundaries of this earth, the life of the solar system, the cosmical unit, of which the solar world is an infinitesimal speck. But the endless abundance of new knowledge which was infused by science into the life of the highly educated was dangerous to the character in one respect. The German learnt to understand the almost endless varieties of character of foreign nations; the most dissimilar kinds of culture became clear to him. Impartially, and with lively interest, did he enter into the policy of Tiberius, and the enthusiasm of Loyola, the gradual development of slavery in North America, and the pedantries and dreams of Robespierre. He was, therefore, in danger, in his considerate judgment, of forgetting the moral basis of his own life. He who would identify himself with so many foreign minds, needs not only the capacity to grasp the minds of others, but still more the power to keep himself free from the influence exercised over him by foreign conditions of life. He who would without prejudice estimate the relative value of a foreign point of view, must first know how to maintain firmly the moral foundation of his own life. This can only be effected by making his own will subservient to the duty of co-operating with his contemporaries, by joining in free associations, by a free press, and by continuous participation in the greatest political conceptions of his time. It was because the Prussians, whose capital at this time was the centre of German philosophy, were deprived of this regulator, that the cultivated minds of this period acquired a peculiar weakness of character, which will appear strange to the next generation.