om Berlin and could
speak mysteriously or rapturously about the Idea and its evolution by
the dialectic process, was listened to with silent wonder by the young
Saxons, who had been brought up on Kant and Krug. The Hegelian fever
was still very high at that time. It is true Hegel himself was dead
(1831), and though he was supposed to have declared on his deathbed
that he left only one true disciple, and that that disciple had
misunderstood him, to be a Hegelian was considered a _sine qua non_,
not only among philosophers, but quite as much among theologians, men
of science, lawyers, artists, in fact, in every branch of human
knowledge, at least in Prussia. If Christianity in its Protestant form
was the state-religion of the kingdom, Hegelianism was its
state-philosophy. Beginning with the Minister of Instruction down to
the village schoolmaster, everybody claimed to be a Hegelian, and
this was supposed to be the best road to advancement. Though
Altenstein, who was then at the head of the Ministry of Instruction,
began to waver in his allegiance to Hegel, even he could not resist
the rush of public and of official opinion. It was he who, when a new
professor of philosophy was recommended to him either by Hegel himself
or by some of his followers, is reported to have said: "Gentlemen, I
have read some of the young man's books, and I cannot understand a
word of them. However, you are the best judges, only allow me to say
that you remind me a little of the French officer who told his tailor
to make his breeches as tight as possible, and dismissed him with the
words: 'Enfin, si je peux y entrer, je ne les prendrai pas.' This
seems to me very much what you say of your young philosopher. If I can
understand his books, I am not to take him." This Hegelian fever was
very much like what we have passed through ourselves at the time of
the Darwinian fever; Darwin's natural evolution was looked upon very
much like Hegel's dialectic process, as the general solvent of all
difficulties. The most egregious nonsense was passed under that name,
as it was under the name of evolution. Hegel knew very well what he
meant, so did Darwin. But the empty enthusiasm of his followers became
so wild that Darwin himself, the most humble of all men, became quite
ashamed of it. The master, of course, was not responsible for the
folly of his so-called disciples, but the result was inevitable.
After the bow had been stretched to the utmost, a reaction fol