orth to south is a proof that an increasing number of men and women are
aspiring after a religion of spiritual life such as was presented by the
Founder of our Christianity. All the Life-systems of our day must
converge towards such a conception of religion.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XIII [p.227]

EUCKENS PERSONALITY AND INFLUENCE

In this chapter an attempt will be made to present in a brief form some
of the most important aspects of Eucken's personality and influence. His
training and the relation of his teaching to the German philosophical
systems of the present have already been touched upon in some of the
earlier chapters. But no account of Eucken's teaching is complete
without a knowledge of his personality.

We cannot understand his personality without bearing in mind Eucken's
nationality. He is a man of the North. A mere glimpse of the deep blue
eyes reveals this immediately. His ancestors lived in close contact with
Nature, and faced the perils of the great deep. The history of the men
of the North has witnessed, along the centuries, a struggle for
existence as severe as any struggle known in the history of our world. A
trait of Eucken's character almost entirely unknown in England is his
deep sympathy with the small nations [p.228] of Europe, and especially
with those of the North. He has written and pleaded on behalf of Poland,
Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. He finds that small nations, when
their independence is preserved, have the tendency to bring forth
original characteristics of thought and life, which are only too apt to
get lost in the bustle and mechanism of the great nations. He has shown
us on several occasions how much the world is indebted to its small
nations for the ideas and ideals which have shaped its destiny. He
believes with his whole soul that _size_ does not necessarily mean
_greatness_. When we compare the greatness of Palestine and Greece with
that of the larger countries of the world, the latter sink into
insignificance when weighed in the balances of the spirit. He has,
during the past few years, several times pointed out a danger to
personality and character from the vast organisations which have been
created in the various departments of life during the latter half of the
nineteenth century. The deeper personality of man has receded more and
more into the background through the growth of such organisations. This
fact is clear in the realms