The Philosophy of History, Vol. 1 of 2 — John Shaqi
The Philosophy of History, Vol. 1 of 2Schlegel, Friedrich von
Philosophy
The Philosophy of History, Vol. 1 of 2
Schlegel, Friedrich von
History; History -- Philosophy
While engaged in the editorship of the Concordia, Schlegel gave a new
edition of his works with considerable improvements and augmentations.
Actively as his time had been employed, a long period had now elapsed
since he had given any great production to the world; and he was now
preparing those immortal works, which were to shed so bright an
effulgence round the close of his life. In the rapid review which has
been here taken of his critical, philological and historical writings,
nothing has been said of his philosophical pursuits; and yet philosophy
was his darling study--philosophy, which the ancients called "the
science of divine and human things," was alone capable of filling the
vast capacity of Schlegel's mind. At the age of nineteen, he had already
read all the works of Plato in their original tongue; and six-and-thirty
years afterwards, he expressed a vivid recollection of the delight and
enthusiasm which the perusal had excited in his youthful mind. In 1800,
he commenced his philosophical career at the University of Jena before
an admiring audience; we have already seen him at Paris, amid his
philological labours, devoting a portion of his time to the cultivation
of philosophy; and, amid all the struggles and occupations of his
subsequent life, he would ever and anon snatch some moment to pay his
homage to this celestial maid--this mistress of his heart--this object
of his earliest enthusiasm and latest worship.
A very distinguished friend and disciple of Schlegel's, the Baron
d'Eckstein asserts that, towards the close of the last century, a
confederacy was formed among some men of the most superior minds for the
regeneration of natural science--for the revival of the lofty physics of
remote antiquity, when nature was regarded only as the splendid and
almost transparent veil of the spiritual world. The members of this
intellectual association were Schelling, the two Schlegels, the poet
Tirek, Novalis, and the celebrated geographer Ritter. This confederacy
was dissolved, when the pantheistical tendency of Schelling's philosophy
became more apparent; and Frederick Schlegel, in particular, became
afterwards the most strenuous and formidable opponent of a philosophic
system which appeared to him, and rightly enough, only a more subtle and
refined Spinozism. On the true nature of this philosophy, however,
opinion was much divided; many religious men among the Protestants
ranged themselves under its banners; even some of the Orthodox entered
into terms of accommodation with it; and the great Catholic theologian,
Zimmer, thought that, by means of this system, he could obtain a clearer
conception of the great Christian mystery of the Trinity. Enormous as
may be the errors contained in this philosophy, yet, as few philosophic
systems are entirely erroneous, the philosophy of Schelling, which
appears to have undergone a purification in its course, has been
attended with some beneficial results. It has led to a more profound and
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