A bibliography of the survival of the classics: the publications of ... = (2.1932-33 (1938))

DAS HUMANISTISCHE BILDUNGSIDEAL

DER GEGENWART

1237 REHM, ALBERT, Bildungskrisen im Al-
tertum und ihre Bedeutung für die
Gegenwart. Würzburg: Becker '33. 15 S.
Werbeschr. d. Landesverb. d. Vereini-
gung d. Freunde d. Humanist. Gymn.
in Bayern. 11.
Eine kurze Skizze des Konflikte8
zwischen dem platonisch-philosophischen
und dem isokrateisch-sophistischen Bil-
dungsideal, sowie der Auseinandersetzung
zwischen Christentum und antiker Bildung
und ihrer Bedeutung für die Problematik
des erneuerten Humanismus. (Vgl. Rehm,
Neuhumanismus einst und jetzt, München
'31, s. diese Bibliographie 1, Nr. 1168).
L. L.
1238 RALLI, AUGUSTUS, The uses of the clas-
sics. In: Ralli: Later Critiques. London
[usw.]: Longmans '33. S. 41—50.
The essays in this volume should be
considered as a whole. Although their con-
nection is not systematic, they reflect, from
different angles, one and the same philo-
sophy of life and art, and in a way have
to be regarded as complementary. The cen-
tral problem which permeates all these
essays is the transcending of time and space
by the human soul. The function of art and
the pleasure derived from it is, according
to the author, due to the act of communica-
tion with other souls over the gulf of time
and space. By this act the illusionary
character of time is revealed, and the
temporary happenings, transfigured by
imagination, assume the character of time-
less reality.
This experience of infinity, which is the
essence of the enjoyment of art, is also the
source of spiritual culture. The aim of
education is to make us fit for this experi-
ence and thereby to liberate us from the
purely empirical seif. By thus stressing the

personal, “biographical” interest of litera-
ture, the author’s philosophy of art leaves,
of course, many difficulties. The problem
of form and of artistic value e. g. can hardly
be attacked from this angle. The decision
as to whether a work is to be called auto-
biographical in the “higher” or in the inad-
missible materialistic sense seems, accord-
ing to this theory, to depend solely on the
Impression of the “intensity of imagina-
tion”, which was or was not sufficiently
strong to transfigure the recorded fact.
When the author defends the “uses of
the classics” against modern utilitarianism,
his attitude towards ancient literature is
bound up with his general Outlook on life
and letters, which we have tried to cha-
racterize above. He gives many beautiful
appreciations of classical poetry, but here
again he fails to found his apology on any
quality inherent in the ancient authors
themselves. Their charm for him lies chiefly
in the fact that “they stimulate.our
imagination across wider gulfs of space and
time, and thus make us doubly conscious
that our souls are active and our immorta-
lity secure.” L. L.
BERNIGAU, K. F., England und die An- 1239
tike. Bielefeld u. Leipzig: Velhagen u.
Klasing '32. 23 S. = Lebendiges Schrift-
tum 5.
Eine Anthologie von Exzerpten aus den
Werken englischer Dichter und Schrift-
steller des 16. — 20. Jahrh., die die Formen
der Nachwirkung der Antike auf die eng-
lische Kultur illustrieren will. Besonders
berücksichtigt sind dabei: die Bedeutung
der Klassiker für die englische Erziehung,
der ästhetische und religiöse Platonismus,
der Einfluß der römischen Rechts- und
Staatsideen auf die Gedankenwelt des eng-
lischen Imperialismus. L. L.

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