 Further north in Europe, Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) held that because human nature is not static, or fixed irrespective of time and place, understanding alien cultures requires a process of Einfühlung—a “feeling one’s way into”—the culture in question, in all its specificity and perhaps with an eye to its particular genius. In Herder’s hands, however, Einfühlung was not a quasi-mystical or irrational attempt to leap into the minds of others. Instead, it was often a slow, methodical process that needed to be aided by careful historical-philological inquiry (Forster 2002: xvii). (For central texts, see Herder 2002.)