HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY

ever-maturer realisation of the general constitution of human nature.
As man himself is the crown of creation, so his history is the
unfolding of human nature. The Idea of Humanity explains the
complicated movement of national destinies.
In this consideration, the unhistorical mode of thinking which
had characterised the Enlightenment was overcome : every form in
this great course of development was valued as the natural product
of its conditions, and the " voices of the peoples " united to form
the harmony of the world s history, of which humanity is the theme.
And out of this sprang also the task of the future, to bring to
ever richer and fuller development all the stirrings of human
nature, and to realise in living unity the ripe fruits of the historical
development. In the consciousness of this task of the " world-
literature," far from all the pride of the meaner Enlightenment,
full of the presage and anticipation of a new epoch, Schiller could
call out, in valedictory to the " philosophical century," the joyful
words :
" Wie schon, o Mensch, mit deinem Palmenzweige
Stehst du an des Jahrhunderts Neige
In edler, stolzer Mannlichkeit ! " 2
1 With his arguments, though in part of another opinion, St. Martin the
Mystic attacked the crude presentation of Condillac s doctrine by Garat ; cf.
Stances de.s coles Normales, III. 61 ff.
2 In rude paraphrase :
How fair, man, with victory s palm,
Thou standest at the century s wane
In noble pride of manliness.