Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/689

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MULLER


627


MULLER


called to Vienna, and went to Paris with the imperial staff. On the conclusion of peace, he became Aus- trian consul-general for Saxony at Leipzig, and agent for Anhalt and Schwarzburg. He edited here the periodicals: " Deutscher Staatsanzeiger" (1816-18) and " Unparteiischer Literatur- und Kirchenkorre- spondent ", and attended the ministerial conferences at Carlsbad and Vienna (1819-20). In 1826, at the in- stance of Prince von Metternich, he was ennobled as Ritter von Nittersdorf, was recalled to Vienna (1827), appointed imperial counsellor, and employed in the service of the chancery.

Miiller was a man of great and versatile talents, an excellent orator, and a suggestive writer. Several of his works were based upon his own lectures; the most important (besides the above-mentioned periodicals) are: "Die Lehre von Gegensatz" (Berlin, 1804); "Vorlesungen iiber die deutsche WLssenschaft u. Lit- eratur" (Dresden, 1806; 2nd ed., 1807); "Von der Idee der Schonheit" (lectures; Berlin, 1809); "Die Elemente der Staatskunst" (lectures; 3 parts, Berlin, 1809); "Ueber Konig Friedrich II. u. die Natur, VViirde u. Bestimmung der preussischen Monarchie" (lectures; Berhn, 1810) ; " Die Theorie der Staat.shaus- haltung u. ihre Fortschritte in Deutschland u. Eng- land seit Adam Smith" (2 vols., Vienna, 1812); "Vermischte Schriften iiber Staat, Philosophie u. Kunst" (2 vols., Vienna, 1812; 2nd ed., 1817); "Ver- such einer neuen Theorie des Geldes, mit besonderer Rticksicht auf Gros.sbritannien " (Leipzig, 1816); "Zwolf Reden iiber die Beredisamkeit u. deren Verfall in Deutschland" (Leipzig, 1817); "Die Fortschritte der nationalcikonomischen Wissensch.aft in England" (Leipzig, 1817); "Von der Notwendigkcit einer theo- logischen Grundlage der gesamten Staatswissenschaf- ten u. der Staatswirtschaft insbesondere" (Leipzig, 1820; newed., Vienna, 1898); " Die Gewerbe-Polizei in Beziehung auf den Landbau" (Leipzig, 1824); "Vor- schlag zu einem historischen Ferien-Cursus " (Vienna, 1829). A critical pamphlet, which was written in 1817 on the occasion of the Protestant jubilee of the Reformation and entitled, "Etwas das Goethe gesagt hat. Beleuchtet von Adam Miiller. Leipzig den .31 Oktober, 1817", was printed but not publislicd (re- printed in Vienna, 1910). Neverthclcs.s, 'I'raugott Krug's reply, entitled "Etwas, das Herr .Vdam Miiller gesagt hat iiber etwas, das Goethe gesagt hat, und noch etwas, das Luther gesagt hat" (Leipzig, 1817), appeared in two editions.

In the field of hterature and jesthetics, Miiller be- longs to the Romantic school. He is a Romanticist even in his specialty, politics and political economy. As EichendortT says in his " Geschichte der poetischen Literatur Deutschlands" (new ed., by W. Kosch, Kempt en, 1906, p. 352), Miiller "mapped out a do- main of his own, the application of Romanticism to the social and political conditions of life." Miiller himself declares: "The reconciliation of science and art and of their noblest ideas with serious political life was the purpose of my larger works" (Vermischte Schriften, I, p. iii). His chief work is the "Elemente der Staatskunst", originating in lectures delivered be- fore Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar and an as- sembly of politicians and diplomats at Dresden in the winter 1808-09. It treats in six books of the state, of right, of the spirit of legislation in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, of money and national wealth, of the economical factors of the state and trade, of the relation between the state and religion. Miiller en- deavoured to comprehend the connexion between political and social .science, and, while using the his- torical method, to base them upon iiliilosophy and re- ligion. (Cf. the preface to the first volume of the "Elemente", where he treats exhaustively of the differences between his work and Montesquieu's "Es- prit des lois"; cf. also the sixth book of this work, and the above-mentioned work of 1820.) With Edmund


Burke, Friedrich von Gentz, Joseph de Maistre, and Karl Ludwig von Haller, he must be reckoned among the chief opponents of revolutionary ideas in politics. In his work, "Von der Notwendigkcit einer theolo- gischen Grundlage der gesaramten Staatswissenschaf- ten" (1820), Miiller rejects, like Haller (Restaiiration der Staatswissenschaften, 1816), the distinction be- tween constitutional and civil law, which rests en- tirely on the false idea of the state's omnipotence. His ideal is medieval feudalism, on which the reor- ganization of modern political institutions should be modelled. His position in poUtical economy is de- fined by his strong opposition to Adam Smith's sys- tem of materialistic-liberal (so-called classical) polit- ical economy, or the so-called industry system. He is thus also an adversary of free trade. In contrast with the economical individualism of Adam Smith, he emphasizes the ethical element in national economy, the duty of the state toward the individual, and the religious basis which is also necessary in this field. Miiller's importance in the history of political econ- omy is acknowledged even by the opponents of his religious and political point of view. His reaction against Adam Smith, says Roscher (Geschichte der National-Oekonomik, p. 763), "is not bhnd or hostile, but is important, and often truly helpful." The re- actionary and feudalistic thought in his writings, which agreed so little with the spirit of the times, pre- vented his political ideas from exerting a more not- able and lasting influence on his age, while their re- ligious character prevented them from being justly appreciated.

WuRZBACH, Bioffraph. Lex. des KaUertums Oesterreich, XIX (Vienna, 1S6S), 322-8; Mischler in All,/. Jeiilsche Biog., XXII

(Leipzig. 1885), 501-11; Rosentii m , ' ,->,!, nhilder, I, i (3rd

ed., Ratisbon, 1889), 70-93; Schmi i r, -■ '..r., s. v.; Goe- DEKE, Grundriss der Gesch. der df,' ' /) ' , vy. VI (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1898), 196-8; Roscher, <'• •>:. '!>>■ yrifnat-Oekonomik in Deutschland (Munich, 1874), 7G:J-7.S; Brirfwechsel zwischen Friedrich Gentz u. Adam Heinrich Miiller 1800-1829 (Stuttgart,

1S57). Friedrich Lauchert.

Miiller, Joh.^nn, physiologist and comparative anatomist, b. at Coblentz, 14 July, 1801; d. at Ber- lin, 28 April, 18.58. He was the son of a shoemaker, but his mother suc- ceeded in obtaining for him a good education. During his college course at Coblentz, he devoted himself to the classics and made his own translations of Aristotle. His first intention was to be a priest, but at eighteen his love for natural science turned him to medicine and he en- tered the University of Bonn in 1819. While a student he won a prize for origi- nal work on " Respi- ration of the Fn-lus", a thesis that has been declared the best scientific work i'\< student in a prize competition. 1 1


JOHA


MuLLER


'•nird by a \.d his de- gree of doctor for a thesis on animal iniuM'ment. In ls24 1iebecMinc/'/iiv;/,/,„TR(at Bonn, and in 18.30 ordinary professor nf medicine. Before teaching at Bonn lie had sludicd fur I wo years with RiKlolphi at Berlin, :Lnd in ls:;2 was ;]iipiiinte(l his successor in the professorship of aiialomv lliere. In 1847 he was elected Reel or of I he I iiiv.Msit y.

Miiller is justly regarded as the founder of modern physiology. His claim to (liis title rests not only upon his personal contributions to the science, but also upon his power of co-ordinating the results ob-