energetic development of some
particular national characteristic, exercises for centuries a
preponderating influence on another. Thus once did the Jews, the
Greeks, and the Romans. The German nation has experienced this foreign
influence, both for good and for evil. From the ancient world came the
holy faith of the Crucified One, to the wild sons of our forefather
Tuisco: at the same time this warlike race received countless
traditions from the Roman Empire, transforming their whole life.
Through the whole of the middle ages, the nation was earnestly
endeavouring to make these new acquisitions their own. Again, at the
end of this period, after a thousand years had passed, began a new
influence of the ancient world. From it came the ideal of the
Humanitarians, the forerunners of Luther, and the ideal of the German
poets, the forerunners of the war of freedom. On the other hand, from
the Romish world, came upon Germany, with the highest claims, the
pressure of the despotism of Gregory VII., and Innocent III., the
devotion of the restored Church, and the lust of conquest of France.
Then did Germany become depopulated, and the national life was
endangered; but the foreigners who had penetrated into it with such
overpowering force, aided its recovery. All that Italians, French, and
English had attained to in science and arts, was introduced into
Germany, and to these foreign acquisitions did German culture cling,
from the Thirty years' war up to the time of Lessing.

It is the task of science to investigate the productive life of
nations. To her the souls of nations are the highest fields of
investigation that man is capable of knowing. Searching out every
individuality, tracing every received impression, observing even the
broken splinters, uniting all discernible knowledge, more guessing at
truths and pointing out the way, than apprehending them, she seeks, as
her highest aim, to prove the intellectual unity of the whole human
race upon earth. Whilst pious faith with undoubting certainty places
before man the idea of a personal God, the man of science reverently
seeks to discover the Divine, in the great conceptions, which however
they may surpass the understanding of the individual, yet are all
attached to the life of the world. But however little he may consider
their importance, in comparison with that which is incomprehensible in
time and eternity, yet in his limited circle lies all the greatness
that we are capable