On the Literature and Thought of the N German Classical Era: Collected Essays ISBET HUGH BARR NISBET On the Literature and Thought of German Classical Era This volume provides a valuable contributi on to our knowledge of eighteenth- and nine- teenth-century intellectual life inside and outside Germany. Prof. Karl S. Guthke, Harvard University This elegant collec� on of essays ranges across eighteenth and nineteenth-century thought, covering philosophy, science, literature and religion in the ‘Age of Goethe.’ A recognised authority in the fi eld, Nisbet grapples with the major voices of the Enlightenment and gives pride of place to the fi gures of Lessing, Herder, Goethe and Schiller. The book ranges widely in its compass of thought and intellectual discourse, dealing incisively with themes including the philosophical implica� ons of literature and the rela� onship between religion, science and poli� cs. The result is an accomplished refl ec� on On the Literature and Thought on German thought, but also on its rebirth, as Nisbet argues for the relevance of these Enlightenment thinkers for the readers of today. of the German Classical Era The fi rst half of this collec� on focuses predominantly on eighteenth-century thought, where names like Lessing, Goethe and Herder, but also Locke and Voltaire, feature. The second has a wider chronological scope, discussing authors such as Winckelmann and Schiller, Collected Essays while branching out from discussions of religion, philosophy and literature to explore the sciences. Issues of biology, early environmentalism, and natural history also form part of this volume. The collec� on concludes with an examina� on of changing a� tudes towards HUGH BARR NISBET art in the a� ermath of the ‘Age of Goethe.’ The essays in this volume are brought together in this collec� on to present Nisbet’s widely- acclaimed perspec� ves on this fascina� ng period of German thought. It will be of interest to scholars and students of the intellectual life of Europe during the Enlightenment, while its engaging and lucid style will also appeal to the general reader. This is the author-approved edi� on of this Open Access � tle. As with all Open Book publica� ons, this en� re book is available to read for free on the publisher’s website. Printed and digital edi� ons, together with supplementary digital material, can also be found at www.openbookpublishers.com Cover image: Photo by Nathaniel Shuman on Unsplash at htt ps://unsplash.com/photos/vZvNSeXzmwY Cover design: Anna Gatti book ebooke and OA edi� ons also available OBP www.openbookpublishers.com ON THE LITERATURE AND THOUGHT OF THE GERMAN CLASSICAL ERA On the Literature and Thought of the German Classical Era Collected Essays Hugh Barr Nisbet https://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2021 Hugh Barr Nisbet This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt the text and to make commercial use of the text providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: Hugh Barr Nisbet, On the Literature and Thought of the German Classical Era: Collected Essays. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2021, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0180 In order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit, https:// doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0180#copyright Further details about CC BY licenses are available at, https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/ All external links were active at the time of publication unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web Updated digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0180#resources Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher. ISBN Paperback: 9781783747696 ISBN Hardback: 9781783747702 ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781783747719 ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781783747726 ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781783747733 ISBN XML: 9781783747740 DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0180 Cover image: Photo by Nathaniel Shuman on Unsplash at https://unsplash.com/photos/ vZvNSeXzmwY Cover design: Anna Gatti Contents Foreword vii 1. Lucretius in Eighteenth-Century Germany: With a 3 Commentary on Goethe’s Poem ‘Metamorphosis of Animals’ 2. On the Rise of Toleration in Europe: Lessing and the 35 German Contribution 3. On the Function of Mystification in Lessing’s Masonic 57 Dialogues, Ernst and Falk 4. The Rationalisation of the Holy Trinity from Lessing to 81 Hegel 5. Lessing and Misogyny: Die Matrone von Ephesus 109 6. The German Reception of an Irish Eccentric: The 129 Controversy over Thomas Amory’s The Life of John Buncle, Esq. (1778–79) 7. Herder’s The Oldest Document of the Human Race and his 145 Philosophy of Religion and History 8. The Ethical Foundation of Goethe’s Scientific Thought 163 9. Natural History and Human History in Goethe, Herder, and 179 Kant 10. Schiller’s ‘Ode to Joy’: A Reappraisal 215 11. Laocoon in Germany: The Reception of the Group since 241 Winckelmann List of Illustrations 291 Bibliography 295 Index 321 Foreword These are my essays on some of the central products of the German Classical Era. The topics they explore are key to the literature and thought of that period. All the essays have previously been published in journals or collections, dating from 1979 to 2010, and therefore span a considerable portion of my research into the German Enlightenment. I have selected them as the most important items in connection with problems presented by the major thinkers and writers working at that time. In so doing, I wished to provide as wide a coverage as possible of topics and authors within the German classical period. The essays consequently deal with literature (including lyric poetry, the verse epic, the novel, drama and prose dialogue), philosophy, history, history of science, history of ideas, art history, theology and religion, and with writers and thinkers including Lucretius, Winckelmann, Lessing, Herder, Goethe, Schiller, Kant, Hegel, and many others. I have in addition tried to include only those items the main conclusions of which have not, to the best of my knowledge, been superseded or substantially qualified by later research. In re-editing the work, I have confined myself largely to minor corrections, essential updating, and deletion of some passages which I no longer consider strictly relevant. I would not have assembled this collection of essays without the encouragement and wisdom of Professor Roger Paulin. Bringing together a selection of my key research in a single volume provides an opportunity to review some of the most important developments in western thought. I hope that this book will help to shed light on the historical and philosophical context in which ideas that are of fundamental significance to the world in which we live were originally developed. I am therefore most grateful to Roger for his foresight in identifying the value of such an initiative. Equally, I wish to thank him viii On the Literature and Thought of the German Classical Era for his kindness in supporting the arrangements for preparing and editing the manuscript of these essays. I would also like to thank Karl Guthke, a colleague of many decades and a great support to me, who has been instrumental in the approval of this collection for publication. My thanks extend to Alessandra Tosi of Open Book Publishers for her professional guidance and forbearance as I have gone through the time-consuming process of revisiting my past research and preparing this volume for publication. I am also greatly indebted to Dr John Williams of the University of St. Andrews. John is an old friend and colleague as well as a leading authority on the German Enlightenment. He has generously spared a considerable amount of his time to assist me in compiling a detailed index to this collection. I wish to thank him for his tireless and meticulous work and for accomplishing the task with impressive resolve. My colleagues at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, have provided friendship and kindness to me for many years. I am particularly grateful to the College for organising funding for the work necessary to finalise the manuscript of these essays. I also wish to thank my son, Marcus, who has assisted me in co-ordinating many of the practical steps necessary to bring this project to fruition. Finally, I would like to pay tribute to my late wife, Angela, who was a dear companion to me for nearly thirty years and a devoted supporter of my endeavours. I duly dedicate this volume to her. H. B. Nisbet December 2020 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Etching by W. Unger after G. O. May (1779). Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images, CC BY 4.0, https://commons. wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe._Etching_by_W._ Unger_after_G._O._Wellcome_V0002292.jpg 1. Lucretius in Eighteenth- Century Germany: With a Commentary on Goethe’s Poem ‘Metamorphosis of Animals’1 John Ruskin, who had read Lucretius’s De rerum natura in his student days as a set book at Oxford, commented in later years: ‘I have ever since held it the most hopeless sign of a man’s mind being made of flint- shingle if he liked Lucretius’.2 Such antipathy to the Roman poet was nothing new, of course, particularly towards his philosophy. Though his poetry was admired from when it first appeared around the middle of the first century BC, his Epicureanism was unacceptable to the Stoics who so often dominated Roman philosophy.