The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-03-10
Transformed Forces of
the Eighteenth Century,

The century. even II we are in full decad.
| dence (of which we are not the best judges.
| has been glorious In literature. and holds
/ its own well with any in modern history.
English itself has passed from the occa-
sionally stilted Augustan survival, through
the novelties Of Macaulay. De Quincy and
Carlyle. and the cary decorated Mr..
Ruskin. into slipshod slang, in one extreme.
and euphuism in the other. But the main
stream keeps its course, and English may
be written with perfect purity. and WITH
new fuency and variety by the men Tor
whom the task is reserved by Fate But
what does the century bequeath by way OF
Intellectual motive? Little but the more or
less transformed forces Of the Eighteenth
Century. There is science, but science, hap
PLY. is beginning to be aware that she Is
not really omniscient. Conceivably her foot
Is on the border of a new region, often sur
missed. never explored, full Of light on the
problems Of spirit and matter. Hence. in
deed, might come a new force In letters.
Again, the social ideas of 1750-1S0 may take
practical shapes of incalculable momen-
tousness, but these would not. for long. be
favorable to literature. Or, less probably,
the return on the past may assume practical
shape, though this element of the later
Eighteenth Century may seem, as far as
letters go, to be exhausted. In brief. as l
began by saying. the division of literary
periods by measures Of time Is a cross
division. This popularity the last hundred
years possess; that literature now blossoms
on a far wider field. English-speaking
America, had, indeed, a literature long be-
fore the War Of Independence. but 1t was
not a literatue for every reader Of to-day.
Now, and for long, the States have taken
their own part in history, fiction. poetry and
all other branches of letters. Germany
came back into world literature again, just
at the ending of the last century, after
unregarded ages of neglect. Russia and the
Scandinavian north awoke about the same
time and daily widen their influence, as
does Belgium in the sunshine Of Maefer-
linck. France. of course, has in all time
been In the foremost rank; while to ball
ance America, Russia and the North, Italy
and Spain have scarcely held the place..
which through 50 many centuries was their
own. Such changes in natural uteratures
resemble the political waxings and warnings
Of national fortunes. The English-speaking
peoples may have their eclipse, perhaps 1t
is heralded by q modern comparative def
cheney in humor. which. If England and
America cease to laugh. will die out of a
profoundly solemn world.
In the foregoing remarks little has been
said about the literature Of the century.
except among English-speaking peoples.
Not being a Mezzofanti. I am not person.
ally acquainted with the literature Of all
languages. and it is a vain thing to speak
OF books at second hand 1t was not the
Nineteenth, but the Eighteenth Century,
that saw Germany re-enter the field Of
pure literature. as distinguished from that
of scholarship and science. Since the eud
OF the Middle Ages, with their poets, Ger
man writer's had mainly been devoted to
theology and classical criticism. Latin was
the language Of the learned. Many ascer-
tainable causes. In the middle and end OF
the last century, and doubtless many
causes which cannot be ascertained. awoke
a of thA . ~artT ~ ~
Frederick the Great gave Germans patriot
ism and confidence In their own tongue.
The phiiosophic and social works which
preluded to the French Revolution stirred
the German mind and required popular ex-
Thus Kant wrote in his own ma
tive speech in reaction against the skeptical
philosophy of David Hume. and Kant be-
the father of the long array of Ger
man metaphysicians, from Hegel and
Ffchte to Schopenhauer and Hartmann.
philosophy cannot be briefly stated
especially In FRENCH as one of them said.
its general effect has been rather to
materialism by making 1t pref
ty plain that human nature is not so simple
and easily to be explained as the Scottish
philosophers were apt to suppose. In Eng
and. Coleridge gave an Anglican heart to
the new German philosophy. which also in
fiuenced Hamilton, and still affects the
philosophical teaching of Oxford. 1T Is
but is 1t the right sort Of nom
asked the late Professor Sidgwick
"a Cambridge mani when struggling with
the examination papers Of a Hegelian un-
dergraduate.