Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: II. EARLY DAYS. Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher was born at Breslau on the 21st November, 1768. His father, Gottlieb Schleiermacher, a chaplain in the Prussian army, seems to have been a man of some culture and force of character. He was the son of the famous preacher and enthusiast whom Jung Stilling delineates in his Theobald as " Pastor Darius." In early life Gottlieb came under the influence of the fanatical movement with which his father was for a time so intimately associated ; but the impression which it made upon him was neither deep nor lasting. His mind was of the strong, vigorous order ; and it had an affinity for the philosophical and the scientific rather than for the fanciful and the imaginative. When he therefore broke away from the fanaticism of his youthful surroundings, he became a thorough-going sceptic ; and, for twelve years, drifted sadly enough on the lonely sea of doubt. At length, after many wanderings, he found a solution of his difficulties and rest for his soul in the old evangelical faith which he had so long and persistently despised. Schleiermacher's mother was also descended from an ecclesiastical family. Her father was chaplain in ordinary to the King ; her brother was a theological professor at Halle ; and many of her near relatives, particularly Spalding and Sack, occupied the highest positions in the ministry of the Reformed Church. From the little that is known of her she appears to have been a singularly pious, shrewd, and intelligent woman. Her chief sphere she found in the home, and the work she liked the best was the service of maternal love—the blessed ministry of shaping young souls for the present life and the life that is to be. During the frequent absence of her husband on official duty, she superintended with much wisdom ...