Über das Erhabene

Über das Erhabene, an essay on tragedy and the sublime published by Schiller in his Kleinere prosaische Schriften (vol. 3, 1801). When it was written is uncertain, but it was not before 1793. The essay puts with great clarity and eloquence the view that man, in the face of overwhelming disaster, can only retain his moral freedom by a willing acceptance. Moral education through art is the means by which man attains this sublimity (‘Der moralisch gebildete Mensch, und nur dieser, ist ganz frei’). The essay contains Schiller's well-known assertion that the will is the specific characteristic of man: ‘Alle andere Dinge müssen; der Mensch ist das Wesen, welches will’.