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DR. FLUGEL AS A SCHOLAR 1

William Dinsmokb Briggs

The first important piece of work done by Dr. Fliigel was his
doctor's thesis, entitled Thomas Carlyles Religiose und Sittlicke
Entwicklung und Weltanschauung, printed in 1887.* It was
divided into two parts, the first giving a sketch of Carlyle's life from
the point of view of his spiritual development, the second exam-
ining the nature of his attitude toward the universe. Dr. Flugel
apparently did not intend to study his subject from a critical
and comparative standpoint ; perhaps he felt that the time had
not yet come for an attempt of that nature. Carlyle had died
but the day before, and the thunders of that mighty voice still reverber-
ated among the hills. The extent and the nature of his influence could
not yet be definitely settled, though it was of course inevitable that mat-
ters of this kind should be touched upon. The genesis of Carlyle's ideas
in his own experience, the profound influence exerted upon him by
Goethe, the less profound influence of Schiller, the relation of Carlyle
to the transcendental philosophy, contemporary opinion about him, — none
of these topics could be entirely avoided, though only the first two are
discussed systematically. Such a genetic account of Carlyle's thought
was not, however, Dr. Flugel's primary purpose; he desired rather to
give an accurate description of what that thought was in itself. With
clearness, precision, and tact, he put together an admirable statement,
largely in Carlyle's own words, of the main outlines of what most readers
must have found at times a rather puzzling matter, namely, just what it
was that Carlyle thought and felt. There is no trace of an attempt to
force Carlyle's ideas into a preconceived mould. That his attitude toward
the problem of slavery was inconsistent with his general scheme and
manner of thinking and feeling is frankly recognized ; no effort is made
to explain the fact away. The question of Carlyle's domestic unhappiness,
though necessarily mentioned once or twice, is discreetly left to one side.
