Characteristics of the Present Age, (German: Die Grundzüge des gegenwärtigen Zeitalters), were a series of lectures given between 1804-5, and published in 1806. The English translation was given by William Smith and first published in 1847. The work analyses the Enlightenment and its defining place in the historical evolution of general human consciousness, whilst considering its defects, and looking forward to the belief in the divine order of the Universe as the summit of the life of Reason.