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energies of the human sdiil ; but When due allowance is made fbt that imaginative enthusiasm by which he is sometimes led astray iti pursuing a favourite idea , and when this passage is viewed in connexion with the general spirit of his philosophy , we cati only consider him as expressing his hearty sympathy with every free and natural development of the heart and character , especially
as it is seen in traditionary legends and in the simplest forms of popular poetry , to the disparagement of those more laboured and artificial productions , in which the free play of the native faculties is checked by rules , in which the heart speaks not , and in which no individual feeling and genius can be recognized . On this topic Herder certainly carried his notions to an extreme ; but , on the other hand , it may perhaps be justly contended , that
many writei-s on the philosophy both of history and of literature , have too arbitrarily assumed one particular state of manners , civilization , and taste , as an absolute standard of perfection , by which the claims of other nations and other ages must be judged ; without perceiving that , under the most diversified forms of social life , the Almighty has benevolently provided for such a development of the heart , affections , and intellect , as best
conduces to the well-being and happiness of individual man , in the circumstances in which he is actually placed ; and that literature , which is the embodying of the popular voice , must always stand in a iliarked relation to those circumstances , and can be fairly estimated only by a constant reference to them . In combating this narrow prejudice , by which many critics , particularly of the French school , have been infected , Herder was betrayed , perhaps
unconsciously , into an extravagance of the opposite kind ; but his writings have still had a most salutary effect ; and perhaps their influence may be traced in that more enlightened spirit of criticistn which the Schlegels have carried into literature , and Which his friend Heyne , and others since his time , have so successfully adopted in antiquities and history . It would thus appear , from the views unfolded by Herder , in the two first volumes of his work , that the three great influences
which most powerfully operate on the human race—at once developing individual character , and carrying forward the progressive improvement of the species—are those of constitutional temperament inherited from the birth ; of climate and physical condition J &hd lastly , of tradition \ n its most comprehensive sense , as including that common heritage of feelings , opinions , and
knowledge , of arts , usages , and institutions , wnich descends , modifying and niodified , through successive generations , bringing the spirit of the past to act on the present and the future , and giving to men of the remotest ages and nations an interest in each other ' s improvement and happiness . Laws and governments , arts and inventions , are all swept along this broad stream of tradition . But of all the treasures thus handed down to mankind
Untitled Article
thb Philosophy dftfte History ofMiahkind . 95
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1832, page 95, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1806/page/23/
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