94

Surely not that!  But why should not every individual man have existed more than once upon this World?

95

Is this hypothesis so laughable merely because it is the oldest?  Because the human understanding, before the sophistries of the Schools had dissipated and debilitated it, lighted upon it at once?

Why may not even I have already performed those steps of my perfecting which bring to man only temporal punishments and rewards?

97

And once more, why not another time all those steps, to perform which the views of Eternal Rewards so powerfully assist us?

Why should I not come back as often as I am capable of acquiring fresh knowledge, fresh expertness?  Do I bring away so much from once, that there is nothing to repay the trouble of coming back?

99

Is this a reason against it?  Or, because I forget that I have been here already?  Happy is it for me that I do forget.  The recollection of my former condition would permit me to make only a bad use of the present.  And that which even I must forget now, is that necessarily forgotten for ever?

100

Or is it a reason against the hypothesis that so much time would have been lost to me?  Lost?—­And how much then should I miss?—­Is not a whole Eternity mine?

LETTERS UPON THE AESTHETIC EDUCATION OF MAN

BY

J. C. FRIEDRICH VON SCHILLER

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

An outline of the life of Schiller will be found prefixed to the translation of “Wilhelm Tell” in the volume of Continental Dramas in The Harvard Classics.

Schiller’s importance in the intellectual history of Germany is by no means confined to his poetry and dramas.  He did notable work in history and philosophy, and in the department of esthetics especially, he made significant contributions, modifying and developing in important respects the doctrines of Kant.  In the letters on “Esthetic Education” which are here printed, he gives the philosophic basis for his doctrine of art, and indicates clearly and persuasively his view of the place of beauty in human life.

LETTERS UPON THE AESTHETIC EDUCATION OF MAN

LETTER I.

By your permission I lay before you, in a series of letters, the results of my researches upon beauty and art.  I am keenly sensible of the importance as well as of the charm and dignity of this undertaking.  I shall treat a subject which is closely connected with the better portion of our happiness and not far removed from the moral nobility of human nature.  I shall plead this cause of the Beautiful before a heart by which her whole power is felt and exercised, and which will take upon itself the most difficult part of my task in an investigation where one is compelled to appeal as frequently to feelings as to principles.