with the steady maturing of his intellectual and theo- logical systems. It was, perhaps, the richest develop- ment period (from his twenty-eighth to his thirty-sec- ond year) in his life. Hence it is to be explained that with so little previous literarj' experience (he had only helped Sack translate Blair's Sermons, and himself translated Fawcett's Sermons and contributed a few es- says to periodicals) he was able at once to electrify the nation by such a master-work as his lieden (discourses on religion [1799]) and his Monoloyen (1800). Leav- ing behind him these earnest protests against the prev- alent spirit of irreligion, he now repaired (1802) to the post of court preacher at Stolpe, in East Pomerania. Here he passed two laborious years, and wrought upon his German translation of Plato. Here appeared his first strictly philosophical work, Kritik aller bisherigen Sittenlehren (1803). In 1804 he was transferred to Halle and made professor extraordinary of theology. It was a trying change; his own system of theology was not yet matured in his mind; and nothing but the great practical wisdom and originality of a Schlei- ermacher would have succeeded under the circum- stances. He began at once to lecture in a very origi- nal manner on New-Test, exegesis, dogmatics, and eth- ics. He also preached frequently, re-establishing the academic worship which had fallen into neglect. He was soon made professor in ordinary. Although he at- tracted general attention, yet he was not congenial to the members of the theological faculty. Only Niemey- er and Yater drew near to him ; Knapp and Nijsselt did not appreciate him. His lectures and sermons made strange and contradictory impressions. Was he an atheist, a Spinozist, or a super-orthodox pietist ? Some thought the one ; some the other. At this period he produced his Weihnachtsfeicr (i^Wi) and his commenta- ry on Timothy (1807). The ravages of the French in- vasion interrupting now his labors at Halle, he returned to Berlin (autumn of 1807) and became pastor of Trin- ity Church (Dreifaltigkeitskirche). In 1808 he mar- ried the widow of his young friend, Von Willich. In 1810 he was made professor in ordinary of the new Uni- versity of Berlin and a member of two scientific asso- ciations. Here the most influential half of his life be- gins. He was of the small circle of great men who call- ed the new university into being and gave to it fame. Here he passed from a rhapsodical to a dogmatic theo- logian ; from a proclaimer of religious philosophy to an expounder of the Word of God. It is not a revolution, however, but only a growth. Besides his scholastic labors, Schleiermacher took a lively part in the troubled l)olitics of his country. In the darkest hours of Napo- leonic oppression, he was unwearied in. pulpit labors, counselling patience and inspiring with hope. He gave also much thought to the Church agitation which af- terwards culminated in the " Union" of the Lutherans and the Reformed. The most important production of liis first ten years in Berlin was his Glaubenslehre. From 1818 to 1822 he labored with De Wette and Liicke in editing the Theolor/ische Zeitschrift, which, ignoring the vulgar difference between rationalism and supernat- uralisni, represented a more general and a higher form of religious and phiIoso]ihical science. Though not one of the founders of the Studien iind Kritiken (1828), yet his contributions to its earlier numbers helped to give it its high character. But it was to his actual work of teaching that the strength of his life was given. He lectured from two to three hours per day, except Saturdays. His intercourse with the other members of the university — with Fichte, Savigny, and Hegel, with Buttmann, Biickh, and Lachmann, with l)e Wette, Mar- heineke, and Neander — was dee])ly beneficial on both sides. The subjects which he taught were hermeneu- tics, ethics, dogmatics, dialectics, psychology, and phi- losophy, besides other incidental sui)jects. To his ser- mons he gave but a few moments on Saturdays, rarely throwing upon paper more than a few outlines. The majority of his published sermons arose from notes taken
down by his auditors and then revised by himself. In society Schleiermacher took great delight, though not always himself the greatest talker. Society did not weary, but recreate him. To the students he was by far not so familiar as Neander, but the time he gave to them left indelible impressions. In his domestic life he was peculiarly happy. Only the death of his sole son (1829) cast a shadow into his life from which he seemed never fully to recover. Still he fulfilled all his offices and was busy with his pen to the very last. His oft-expressed wish that he might die in the full posses- sion of his consciousness was graciously granted to him. Early in February, 1834, he was attacked with inflamma- tion of the lungs, which closed his life on the 12th. His dying hours were those of a resigned, joyous fol- lower of Christ. His very last act and words were the administering of the eucharist to himself and his friends.
From these outlines of Schleiermacher's outward life we pass to a brief notice of his chief literarj' and theo- logical productions, following in the main the article (forty-four pages) by Gass in Herzog's Real-Encyklop. xiii. He stood, as we have said, between the death and the birth of two ages. Combining the tendencies of the two — the rationalistic and the evangelical — in his own person, he helped to bury the one and to in- augurate the other. Yet he himself belonged to nei- ther. He gave the death - blow to rationalism, cast away the rubbish, and laid the foundations of the new evangelical edifice ; but he did not fully build it. His intellectual historv is the history of the Christian con- sciousness of his epoch. It is a growth. It has a dawn, a crystallizing period, and a philosophic maturity. It can be traced distinctly in the thirty-one volumes of his collective works as edited by his friend Jonas and others, from 1834 to 1864.