which are found at a deeper level within the human soul than the knowing level.  Life is larger and deeper than logic, and is something, despite all our efforts, which resists being reduced to logical propositions.  It is quite easy to understand how a young man of Eucken’s temperament and training should acquiesce in all the logical treatment of Lotze’s philosophy, and still find that more was to be obtained from other sources which had quenched the thirst of the great men of the past.

When Eucken entered the University of Berlin he came into contact with a teacher who helped him immensely in the quest for religion, and in the interpretation of religion as the [p.15] issue of that quest.  Adolf Trendelenburg was a great teacher as well as a noble idealist, and his influence upon young Eucken was very great.  Indeed, it seems that Trendelenburg’s influence was great on the life of every young man who was fortunate enough to come into contact with him.  The late Professor Paulsen, in his beautiful autobiography, Aus meinem Leben (1909), presents us with a vivid picture of Trendelenburg and his work.  Under him the pupils came into close touch not only with the meaning but also with the spirit of Plato and Aristotle.  The pupils were made to see the ideal life in all its charm and glory.  The great Professor had all his lifetime lived and meditated in this pure atmosphere, and possessed the gift of infusing something of his own enthusiasm into the minds and spirits of his hearers.  Eucken has stated on several occasions his indebtedness to Trendelenburg.  The young student entered the temple of philosophy through the gateways of philology and history.  This was a great gain, for the barricading of these two gateways against philosophy has produced untold mischief in the past.  At present men are beginning to see this mistake, and we are witnessing to-day the phenomenon of the indissoluble connection of language and history with philosophy.  In fact, the new meanings given to language and history are meanings of things which happened in the [p.16] culture and civilisations of individuals and of nations, and such a material casts light on the processes, meaning, and significance of the human mind and spirit.

Eucken learnt this truth in Berlin at a very early age, and his life and teaching ever since have been a further development of it.  This fact has to be borne in mind in order that we may understand the prominence he gives to religion, religious idealism, spiritual life, and other similar concepts—­concepts which are largely foreign to ordinary philosophy and which are only to be found in that mysterious, all-important borderland of philosophy and religion.

After graduating as Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Goettingen, we find him preparing himself as a High School teacher, in which position he remained for five years.