ctive, could not prove the highest realities, but must have faith in
its own faculties, prepared him for imbibing the philosophy of Jacobi. The
looking inward to the deep utterances of the soul, the interpretation of
the objective world by means of the internal, prepared him for Fichte. The
mystical attempt to understand the ideas themselves, to use the archetype
for creating an ontology from the objective side, observable in Plato's
latest works, found its parallel in Schelling. Schleiermacher had large
sympathies with these three processes, but mainly with the first; which
was to be expected from his purpose. Aiming at gaining spiritual certitude
rather than speculating for intellectual gratification, Jacobi's
philosophy appeared to combine the excellences of the other two systems,
the subjective character of the one, and the intuitional of the other;
with the additional advantage of seeming to give expression to the
instincts of the heart, as well as the intuitions of the mind. Beyond all
these qualities, Schleiermacher inherited from his Moravian education the
spirit of pietism, which, almost extinguished by the recent activity of
mind, had retired to the quiet sphere where a Stilling(752) or an
Oberlin(753) communed with God and laboured for man.

Possessing therefore the two great elements which had been united in the
Reformation,--endowed on the one hand with the largest sympathy with every
department of the intellectual movement, and the mastery of its ripest
erudition, and at the same time with a soul kindled with a hearty love for
Christianity,--he was fitted to become the Coryphaeus of a new reformation,
to attempt again a final reconciliation of knowledge and faith. Whether we
view him in his own natural gifts and susceptibilities; in the aim of his
life; in his mixture of reason and love, of philosophy and criticism, of
enthusiasm and wisdom, of orthodoxy and heresy; or regard the transitory
character of his work, the permanence of his influence; church history
offers no parallel to him since the days of Origen.(754)

His early education was received in the university of Halle; an
institution which had long been the home of pietism, and has continued
with but few intervals(755) to evince much of the same Christian spirit.
He became professor there early in the century,(756) until the town
passed, as already stated, into the power of the French. He removed to
Berlin when that university was founded,(757) and