In that time of the most sorrowful reaction the political condition of Germany was so wretched that any discussion concerning it was gladly avoided.  I do not remember having attended a single debate on that topic in the circles of the students with which I was nearly connected.

But the great question “Materialism or Antimaterialism” still agitated the Georgia Augusta, in whose province the conflict had assumed still sharper forms, owing to Rudolf Wagner’s speech during the convention of the Guttingen naturalists three years prior to my entrance.

Carl Vogt’s “Science and Bigotry” exerted a powerful influence, owing to the sarcastic tone in which the author attacked his calmer adversary.  In the honest conviction of profound knowledge, the clever, vigorous champion of materialism endeavoured to brand the opponents of his dogmas with the stigma of absurdity, and those who flattered themselves with the belief that they belonged to the ranks of the “strong-minded” followed his standard.

Hegel’s influence was broken, Schelling’s idealism had been thrust aside.  The solid, easily accessible fare of the materialists was especially relished by those educated in the natural sciences, and Vogt’s maxim, that thought stands in a similar relation to the brain as the gall to the liver and the excretions of the other organs, met with the greater approval the more confidently and wittily it was promulgated.  The philosopher could not help asserting that the nature of the soul could be disclosed neither by the scalpel nor the microscope; yet the discoveries of the naturalist, which had led to the perception of the relation existing between the psychical and material life seemed to give the most honest, among whom Carl Vogt held the first rank; a right to uphold their dogmas.

Materialism versus Antimaterialism was the subject under discussion in the learned circles of Germany.  Nay, I remember scarcely any other powerful wave of the intellect visible during this period of stagnation.

Philosophy could not fail to be filled with pity and disapproval to see the independent existence of the soul, as it were, authoritatively reaffirmed by a purely empirical science, and also brought into the field all the defensive forces at her command.  But throngs flocked to the camp of Materialism, for the trumpets of her leaders had a clearer, more confident sound than the lower and less readily understood opposing cries of the philosophers.

Vogt’s wrath was directed with special keenness against my teacher, Lotze.  These topics were rarely discussed at the tavern or among the members of the corps.  I first heard them made the subject of an animated exchange of thought in the Dirichlet household, where Professor Baum emerged from his aristocratic composure to denounce vehemently materialism and its apostles.  Of course I endeavoured to gain information about things which so strongly moved intellectual men, and read in addition to Lotze’s books the polemical writings which were at that time in everybody’s hands.