Schleiermacher, Frikdrich Daniel Ernst, was a theologian of the Reformed Church of (lermany, who, standing on the border-line between the decline of ra- tionalism and the birth of the new evangelical school of Germany, exerted an infiuence for good in all the higher fields of thought which has rarely been equalled by any mind in any age (" the greatest divine of the 19th century," says P. SchafT, Creeds, i, 451). He was born at Breslau, Nov. 21, 17(18. His father was an hum- ble army chaplain of Calvinistic faith, upright life, and rather cold and harsh temper. His mother {nee Stuben- rauch), a pastor's daughter, was sprighth-, prudent, and pious. Yoinig Schleierniacher's health was delicate. His education up to his fifteenth year was derived
chieflj' from his parents. In 1783 he was sent to the school of the ISIoravian Brethren at Niesky. Here he made rapid strides in knowledge ; but he also began to be troubled with religious doubts. At the age of seven- teen he entered the higher school of the same brethren at Barbj'. Here he was brought face to face with a body of doctrine which, not being able to command his full assent, had the effect of forcing him to begin the construction of a system of his own. His first chief doubts related to the substitutional atonement of Christ and the eternity of future punishment. The attempts of his teachers to remove these doubts had no other ef- fect than to sadden him, and to convince him that his religious life would have to be nurtured outside of Mo- ravian circles. He was frank enough to open his heart and explain his doubts to his dry, traditional father. The father rudely answered him, "O foolish son, who has bewitched thee that thou obeyest not the truth and crucifiest the Saviour afresh?" Subsequent cor- respondence, however, brought the father into a more Christian frame of mind, and finally led each to esteem and respect the other in a far liigher degree than be- fore. With great difficulty having obtained his father's consent, he entered the University of Halle in the spring of 1787. While thus breaking his outward connection with the Moravians, he yet bore away with him from them a spirit of tender, subjective religiousness which ever after lingered like a heavenly aroma over every- thing which he printed or spoke. In Halle he lived with an uncle, and studied and heard lectures just as he pleased. He was not very methodical. He heard the aged rationalist Seniler, devoured the works of Wolf, Kant, and Jacobi, became familiar with modern lan- guages, and pursued mathematics. At this time he wrote: " I am not sure that I can construct the whole field of knowledge into such a system that I can readily assign to every question its place and its solution; but I am sure that the nearest approach to it will be made by a candid hearing of the reasons on both sides, and by not settling upon anything with positiveness until this has previously been done." These words of the youth tru- ly express the spirit that led him throughout life. While not in every case attaining lo definitive results, he yet incessantly worked towards that goal ; and his one life-aim was to ascertain as nearly as practicable tlie limits of attainable human knowledge. Leaving Halle in 1790, he passed his theological examination in Berlin, and, on the recommendation of F. S. (i. Sack, be- came private instructor in the pious family of the count Dohna-Schlobitten in East Prussia. Differing, ultimate- ly, with the count on certain pedagogic princi])les, he returned to Berlin and taught, for a while, an orphan school (1793), then preached as vicar to pastor Schu- mann at Landsberg, on the Wartha (1794), and final- ly was made one of the two pastors at the Charite, the chief hospital in Berlin, a position which he filled until 1802. From 1796 onwards, his intellectual life took on a marvellous richness of fiow and depth. Sur- rounded with such persons as Brinkmann.Scharnhorst, Alexander Dohna, Henrietta Herz, Dorothea Veit, he breathed the most stimulating atmosphere of the Prus- sian capital. In his scientific and philosophical studies he made vast acquisitions. By his intimacy with the younger Schlegel he was partially imbued with the spirit of the romantic school in art. From this infiu- ence the clearness of his moral consciousness was mo- mentarily disturbed. Hence arose his Letters upon Schlegel's romance, Liicinde ( Vertraute Brii'fe, 1801 ), which, though well-meant and full of moral earnest- ness, brought upon him no little odium. They can, at best, be called only a beautiful commentary to a bad text. Hence, also, sprang his romantic friendship with Leonore Grunow, the childless wife of a Berlin pastor, which was absoluteU- broken off only in 180,i. IMuch satisfactory light is thrown upon this single shadow in his life by his letters to his sister Charlotte and to Hen- rietta Herz. These incidental matters did not interfere
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