ABSTRACT
IT IS Romanticism which forces man, throughout almost the whole century, to choose between the spiritual and the material. The romantic betrayal of the spirit avenges itself upon man, for now it is hardly possible any longer to further that reconciliation of the spirit with earthly life which the Renaissance had begun and which Kant and Goethe had almost completed; the ideal and the real are altogether estranged. The human mind, whether it despises reality or whether it is searching for it, has lost contact with the world, and those men who feel themselves inextricably involved in real life have no alternative but to surrender unconditionally to the purely material. This does not imply the exclusion of the intellect; it is possible to exercise great intellectual powers in the sphere of reality, but the mind has to subordinate itself to practical ends and no longer explores the spiritual aspects of reality which would help it to govern and transform the world. It has to be content with performing the tasks of the moment, so that it becomes the servant instead of the master who chooses the right means to his own ends. Thus it is no mere accident that the practical genius of Napoleon has the power to overwhelm romantic Europe.
