has
remained a marked characteristic of German science from Alexander von
Humboldt down to Robert Mayer, Helmholtz, Naegeli, Haeckel, Ostwald,
Hertz, and Driesch. It opposed the one-sided mechanical method of
science, and emphasized conceptions (the idea of development,
the notion of the dynamic character of reality, pan-psychism, and
vitalism) which are still moving the minds of men today, as is
evidenced by the popularity of Henri Bergson, who, with our own
William James, leads the contemporary school of philosophical
Romanticists.

Fichte's chief contribution to German thought was the
_Wissenschaftslehre_, Schelling's the _Naturphilosophie_, and
Schleiermacher's the philosophy of religion. All these thinkers took
account of the prevailing tendencies of the times--_Aufklaerung_,
Kantian criticism, faith-philosophy, Romanticism, and Spinozism--and
were more or less affected by them. Schleiermacher also came under the
influence of Fichte, Schelling, and Greek idealism, particularly
of Plato's philosophy; many were the sources from which he drew his
material for the construction of a great system of Protestant theology
that exercised a profound influence far beyond the boundaries of his
country and won for him the title of the founder of the New Theology.

Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher, the son of a clergyman of
the reformed church, was born at Breslau, November 21, 1768, and was
educated at the Moravian schools at Niesky and Barby. Made sceptical
by the newer criticism, he left the Moravian brotherhood and entered
the University of Halle (1787), where he devoted himself with equal
zeal to the study of theology and philosophy. After his ordination
in 1794 he occupied various pulpits until 1803, when he was made a
professor and university preacher at Halle. In 1806 he removed from
Halle to Berlin, becoming the preacher of Trinity Church in 1809
and professor of theology at the newly founded University in 1810,
positions which he filled with marked ability until his death,
February 12, 1834. It was in Berlin that he came into friendly touch
with the leaders of the Romantic school, Tieck, Friedrich Schlegel,
and Novalis, but he did not allow himself to be carried away by their
extravagances. He distinguished himself as a preacher, theologian,
philosopher, and philologist, and, by his study of the sources of
philosophy, added much to the knowledge of its history. Among the
books published during his life-time are: