In the middle ages 291

dent of the external world, and the mystic impulse

toward the infinite.

VI

Now, if we confine our enquiry to Thierry of

Freiburg and Meister Eckhart — the striking per-

sonalities of the group — it is very remarkable that

these men (whose works are now published or well

known) ^* part deliberately with the scholastic phi-

losophy, — the philosophy which dominates the

minds of Neo-Latins and the Anglo-Celts, and with

which the German thinkers are thoroughly familiar.

Thus, Thierry of Freiburg says expressly, that he

wished to separate himself from those who taught

the common philosophy, — from the communiter lo-

quentes — and he boasts of it." The same sense of

18 I here give the works of these men. The bibliography, at the

end of these lectures, may be consulted for details. Ulric

of Strasburg is the author of a treatise entitled De Summo Bono,

of which brief fragments have been published (cf. Ueberweg-Baum-

gartner, op. cit., p. 462), Witelo wrote a work on Optics (De Per-

spectiva), and he is probably the author of the treatise De IntelK-

gentiis. The works of Thierry of Freiburg have been published by

Krebs. Berthold of Mosburg wrote a commentary on the Elementa

Theologica of Proclus. According to Dyroff ("Ueber Heinrich und

Dietrich von Freiburg," Philos. Jhrb., 1915, pp. 55-63), the Henry of

Freiburg ("de Uriberch"), — who probably belonged to the same

family as Thierry of Freiburg, and lived at the same time — translated

into German verse the mystical and Neo-Platonic discourses of

Thierry of Freiburg. The German works of Eckhart have been

published by Pfeiffer (1857), and fragments of his Latin works by

Denifle (Archiv f, Litt. u. Kirchengesch. d. Mittelalt., 1886).

if> See above, Sententva communis, p. 83. Cf. E. Krebs, "Meister

292 PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

difference appears in Eckhart, who says concerning

some of his own doctrines : primo aspectu monstruo-

sa, duhia aut falsa apparehunt, secus autem si sol-

lerter et studiosius pertractantur."^^ Both of these

thinkers take over certain characteristics and ten-

dencies which are diametrically opposed to the ten-

dency of thought of the Neo-Latins and the Anglo-

Celts, which we have pointed out.

The first character is a lack of clearness in

thought and of precision in language. Although

he uses the fixed terminology of the scholastics, the

celebrated Eckhart is an obscure thinker, — "Ein

unklarer Denker" said Denifle,^^ his best historian

and himself a German. To the clear ideas and pre-

cise expressions of scholastic philosophy, Neo-

Platonic Germans oppose ambiguous theories and

misleading comparisons. Their thoughts do not

seek the clear light, and they are satisfied with ap-

proximations. Their imaginations delight in an-

alogies, notably in the comparison of emanation

with radiation or flowing, by which they represent

creation as a stream of water which flows from the

divine source and as a light which shines forth from

the luminous hearth of the Divinity. Thierry

speaks of the creative act by which God produces

Intelligences, as an ebuUitio, an interior transfusion

Dietrich, s. Lcben, s. Wcrke, s. Wissenschaft," 'Ba.umker^s-Beitrdge,

V, 5-6, 1906, pp. 150, 151.

20 Denifle, Meister Erkharts lateinische Schriften, p. 535.

21 Edit., Denifle, p. 459.