of transforming
it.

If Schopenhauer is fond of referring to the agreement of his views with the
oldest and most perfect religions, the idea lies in the background that
religion,--which springs from the same metaphysical needs as philosophy,
and, for the great multitude, who lack the leisure and the capacity for
philosophical thought, takes the place of the former,--as the metaphysics
of the people, clothes the same fundamental truths which the philosopher
offers in conceptual form and supports by rational grounds in the garb of
myth and allegory, and places them under the protection of an external
authority. When this character of religion is overlooked, and that which
is intended to be symbolical is taken for literal truth (it is not
the supernaturalists alone who start with this unjust demand, but the
rationalists also, with their minimizing interpretations), it becomes the
worst enemy of true philosophy. In Christianity the doctrines of original
sin and of redemption are especially congenial to our philosopher, as well
as mysticism and asceticism. He declares Mohammedanism the worst religion
on account of its optimism and abstract theism, and Buddhism the best,
because it is idealistic, pessimistic, and--atheistic.

It was not until after the appearance of the second edition of his
chief work that Schopenhauer experienced in increasing measure the
satisfaction--which his impatient ambition had expected much earlier--of
seeing his philosophy seriously considered. A zealous apostle arose for
him in Julius Frauenstaedt (died 1878; _Letters on the Philosophy of
Schopenhauer_, 1854; _New Letters on the Philosophy of Schopenhauer_,
1876), who, originally an Hegelian, endeavored to remove pessimism from the
master's system. Like Eduard von Hartmann, who will be discussed below,
Julius Bahnsen (died 1882; _The Contradiction in the Knowledge and Being
of the World, the Principle and Particular Verification of Real-Dialectic_,
1880-81; also, interesting characterological studies) seeks to combine
elements from Schopenhauer and Hegel, while K. Peters (_Will-world and
World-will_, 1883) shows in another direction points of contact with the
first named thinker. Of the younger members of the school we may name P.
Deussen in Kiel (_The Elements of Metaphysics_, 2d ed., 1890), and Philipp
Mainlaender (_Philosophy of Redemption_, 2d ed., 1879). As we have mentioned
above, Schopenhauer's doctrines have exercised an attractive force