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SCHILLER
MAY, 1922
NUMBER5
AND ROMIANTICISiM
257
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258
romanticism
itself,namelyits ethicalor pseudo-ethical
pretensions,
its attemptto set up as a philosophyof life or even as a religion.
What I have tried to do,is to trace this ethicalor pseudo-ethical
aspect of the movementin the life and literatureof the past hundredyearsor more. It is quite besidethemarkto say,as Professor
Lovejoy says, that I have " attained tlhe distinctionof having
damned perhaps a larger numberof eminentand long-accepted
writersthan any other modern critic,"for, as I am carefulto
indicate,5I am not attemptingroundedestimatesof individuals.
Forget this distinctionand it is easy enough to presentme as a
sort of fanatic runningamuck throughthe art and literatureof
the last two hundredyears and giving the impression,as ProfessorLovejoy says, that most of it "ought never to have been
written." But I am not engagingin any wholesalecondemnation
of eitherthe eighteenthor the nineteenthcentury. It is evenless
sensibleperhapsto indict a wholecenturythan it is accordingto
Burke to indict a wholepeople. If I had attemptedanythingof
the kind, ProfessorLovejoy would be justifiedin his chargethat
I am not a humanistbut an extremist. In my studyof emotional
romanticism
in its relationto ethicsthe questionthat arises is not
the humanisticquestionat-all, namelythe questionof mediation,
but a question of truth or error. The man who mediateswith
reference
to erroris not a humanistbut a Laodicean.
It mightalso be wellto say thatI am notsettingup a philosophy
of history. A book that has been attractinga good deal of
attentionof late in Germany,Oswald Spengler's "Downfall of
the Occident,"6 develops a thesis that has certain superficial
points of contact with my own. According to Spengler, the
whole of the Occident is now engaged in a sort of rake's progress, which starts with Rousseau and his return to nature.
Spengler believes that it is not only possible to establishfatal
curvesfor the great "cultures" of the past but that thesecurves
may be extendedinto the future. He actuallyhas a table exhibiting the degreeof degeneracythat the Occidentwill have attained
by the year 2000. The wholeconceptionnot only impliesa phiRousseaub and Romanticism, p. xvii.
Der Untergang des Abendlandes von Oswald Spengler (1918). This
book, which contains over 6,00closely printed pages of heavy philosophical
generalization, is said to have had a sale of more than 50,000 copies!
e
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SCHILLER
AND ROMANTI(CISM
259
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260
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SCHIIILER
AND ROMAkNTICISM
261
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262
intenseinane "
des Erdenlebens
SchweresTraumbildsinkt und sinkt und sinkt.
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263
17
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264
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SCHILLER
AND ROMANTICISM
265
of every aim, every duty, and every care, and made idleness
(Mliissiggang)and indifference
the enviedlot of the divineestate:
a purelyhuman name for the freestand most exalted being."21
The relationbetweensuch passages and FriedrichSchlegel'sIdylle
ilber den M1liissiggang
can scarcelyescape any one; ani(i if this
chapterof Lucinideis not a bit of decadentaestheticismthe phrase
has no meaning.22
The desireof Schillerto escape fromthe unduly didactictrend
of the neo-classic school and from the utilitarianismof the
"Enlightenment," was in itself perfectlylegitimate. Unfortunatelyhe repudiatedthe didactic and utilitarianerroronly to
fall into an aestheticismthat openedthe way forthe later fallacies
of l'art pour l'art. Instead of affirming
a possible co-operationi
of imagrinationi
and reason in the serviceof the forcein man that
I have termedthe ethical will, he sets up expansiveemotionas a
substitutefor will and establishesan oppositionibetweenreasoi
and imaginationeven more acute than-that of whichI complain
in the neo-classicist. One will never achieve on Schillerianlines
the imaginativereasonthat MatthewArnold discoversin the best
Greekpoets. " In aestheticjudgments,"says Schiller," ouirinterest is not in moralityfor itselfbut only in freedom,a d morality
can please our imaginationonly in so far as it makes freedom
visible. Hence thereis manifestconfusionof the bouindaries
when
one demandsmoral purpose in aestheticthings and, in order to
widen the realm of reason, seeks to forcethe imaginationout of
its properdomain. Imagination will eitherhave to be subjected
entirelyto reasonianid in that case all aestheticeffectis lost, or
reason will have to yield a part of its sovereignty
to imagination,
and in that case thereis no great gain for morality. As a result
of pursuingtwo different
ends, you will run the risk of missing
both. You will chain the freedomof phantasythroughmoral
restrictions
and disturbthe necessityof reasonthroughthe caprice
23
(Willkiihr) of imaginiation."
The relationbetweenthis passage and otherpassages of Schiller
I have been quiotinig
anidroananticpsychologyis in a generalway
obvious. It was no part of the plan of my bookto writea detailed
2
Ober die iisthletischeErziehung des Alenschen,x, 328.
' For Novalis and
Schiller, see Haym, Romantische Schlu1e,p. 376.
23 Voin Erhabenen, x, p. 176, line
29 ff.
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266
historyof romanticism
as a Europeanmovement,
or of the connectionbetweenSchillerand the Germanromantics
in particular.
I have,as a matterof fact,givenonlya fractionof the material
on thislatterpoint. My volumedoes
I myselfhave accumulated
notcompeteon theirowngroundwiththeinvestigations
ofHaym,
or Enders,or Rouge,or Professor
Lovejoyhimself.The inifluence
of Schilleron FriedrichSchlegelis difficult
to elucidatein detail.
in
This difficulty
is
part due to a certainloosenessin Schiller's
use of such wordsas nature,24
partlyto the fact that his main
comparison(thatbetweenthe " naive" in the Rousseauistic
sense
and the " sentimental
") is betweentwo thingsone of which
neverexisted,and finallyto thefactthatFriedrichSchlegelis an
unusuallyconfused
andvacillating
thinker.25
Stilltherelationship
betweentheideas of Schillerand thoseof FriedrichSchlegelis in
its broad lines scarcelyopen to question. Afterexaltingthe
classicismof the Greeks,a classicisminto whichentersa strong
elemelntof Schiller'snaivete, Schlegel finallysecedes to the
romanticpointof view (relatedto the "sentimental"attitude)
becauseof its superiority
on the side of the " infinite."One can
even explainon Schilleriangroundsthe glorification
by Schlegel
and otherromanticists,
of the middleages as the acmeof romanticism. They seemto findin the middleages whatSchillerhad
required:26 it was a periodat oncenaive and infinitely
aspiring.
When one brushesaside the chargesof inaccuracyand misrepresentation
of Schillerthat ProfessorLovejoybringsagainst
me and failsto substantiate,
and getsat theessenceof the differencebetweenus, one findsthatit is philosophicalthe difference
namelybetweenan Aristotelian
realismand an idealismthat so
faras it revealsitselfin thisreviewhas a highlyTeutonicflavor.
This difference
goes so deep thata full discussionof it wouldbe
beyondthe scopeof ModernLanguageNotes. A wordhowever
shouldbe said aboutthe significance
of the play-theory
of art for
thecriticand teacherof literature.If one tracesbackthistheory
fromSchillerto Kant's Critiqueof Aesthetic
Judgment,
and from
4' Cf. Basclh,op. cit., p. 206.
25In November,1797, Friedrichwroteto
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267
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268
Un?1iV(rsitly.
REPLY
TO PROFESSOR
BABBITT
I. Professor Babbitt attributes to me several " misapprehensions" of his meaning. An authoralone knowshis own initent;
a reviewercan but judge by his words. In Mr. Babbitt's replyI
note with satisfactionsome modification
of his previousstatement
of his position. I findno evidencethat the reviewmisrepresented
the opinionsexpressedin the book.
1. Mr. Babbittdisclaims" identifyincrormianticism
withRousseauism." The latter is only one of threetypesof romanticism;
and of this type Rousseau was not the firstbut only the most
significantrepresentative.-IfMr. Babbitthad honoredmyreview
with a more carefulreading,he would have seen that he is here
replyingto a criticismwThich
I did not make. My objectionto
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