'must strive to awaken a certain activity or vivacity, with the want of 'which she reproached us.

'Having no notion of what Duty means, and to what a silent, col'lected posture he that undertakes it must restrict himself, she was ever'more for striking in, for instantaneously producing an effect. In society 'there must be constant talking and discoursing.

'The Weimar people are doubtless capable of some enthusiasm, perhaps occasionally of a false enthusiasm; but no French upblazing was 'to be looked for from them; least of all at a time when the French political preponderance threatened all Europe, and calm-thinking men 'foresaw the inevitable mischief which, next year, was to lead us to the verge of destruction.

6

เ

'In the way of public reading also, and reciting, did this lady strive ' for laurels. I excused myself from an evening party when she exhibited 'Phèdre in this fashion,' and where the moderate German plaudits no'wise contented her.

'To philosophise in society, means to talk with vivacity about in'soluble problems. This was her peculiar pleasure and passion. Naturally too she was wont to carry it, in such speaking and counterspeaking, up to those concerns of thought and sentiment which properly 'should not be spoken of except between God and the individual. Here, moreover, as woman and Frenchwoman, she had the habit of sticking 'fast on main positions, and, as it were, not hearing rightly what the other said.

6

'By all these things, the evil genius was awakened in me, so that I would treat whatever was advanced no otherwise than dialectically ' and problematically, and often, by stiff-necked contradictions, brought 'her to despair; wherein, truly, she for the first time grew rightly amiable, and in the most brilliant manner exhibited her talent of thinking ' and replying.

'More than once I had regular dialogues with her, ourselves two; ' in which likewise, however, she was burdensome, according to her ‘fashion; never granting, on the most important topics, a moment of reflection, but passionately demanding that you should despatch the deepest concerns, the weightiest occurrences, as lightly as if it were a 6 game at shuttlecock.

'One little instance, instead of many, may find place here:

'She stepped in, one evening before court-time, and said, as if for salutation, with warm vehemence, "I have important news to tell you: 'Moreau is arrested, with some others, and accused of treason against 'the Tyrant." I had long, as every one had, taken interest in the person of this noble individual, and followed his actions and attempts. 'I now silently called back the past; in order, as my way is, to try the present thereby, and deduce, or at least forecast, the future. The lady changed the conversation, leading it, as usual, on manifold indifferent

9 Suprà, p. 294: date, 26th January.

things; and as I, persisting in my reverie, did not forthwith answer 'her with due liveliness, she again reproached me, as she had often done, 'that this evening too, according to custom, I was in the dumps (maussade), and no cheerful talk to be had with me. I felt seriously angry; 'declared that she was capable of no true sympathy, that she dashed-in 'without note of warning, felled you with a club,—and next minute you 'must begin piping tunes for her, and jig from subject to subject.

Such speeches were quite according to her heart; she wished to 'excite passion, no matter what. In order to appease me, she now ' went over all the circumstances of the above sorrowful mischance, and ' evinced therein great penetration into characters, and acquaintance with 'the posture of affairs.

'Another little story will prove likewise how gaily and lightly you might live with her, if you took it in her own way:

'At a numerous supper-party with the Duchess Amelia, I was sit'ting far off her, and chanced this time also to be taciturn and rather 'meditative. My neighbours reproved me for it, and there rose a little movement, the cause of which at length reached up to the higher personages. Madame de Staël heard the accusation of my silence; expressed herself regarding it in the usual terms, and added, "On the whole, I never like Goethe till he has had a bottle of champagne.” I 'said half-aloud, so that those next me could hear, "I suppose, then, we have often got a little elevated together." A moderate laugh en'sued. She wanted to know the cause. No one could, or would, give a French version of my words in their proper sense; till at last Benjamin Constant, one of those near me, undertook, as she continued 'asking and importuning, to satisfy her by some euphonistic phrase, and so terminate the business.

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6

'But whatever, on reflection, one may think or say of these proceed'ings, it is ever to be acknowledged that, in their results, they have 'been of great importance and influence. That Work On Germany,

' which owed its origin to such social conversations, must be looked on 'as a mighty implement, whereby, in the Chinese Wall of antiquated 'prejudices which divided us from France, a broad gap was broken; so 'that across the Rhine, and in consequence of this, across the Channel, our neighbours at last took closer knowledge of us; and now the whole remote West is open to our influences. Let us bless those annoyances, therefore, and that conflict of national peculiarities, which at the time 'seemed unseasonable, and nowise promised us furtherance.'

SUMMARY.

BURNS.

OUR grand maxim of supply and demand. Living misery and posthumous glory. The character of Burns a theme that cannot easily become exhausted. His Biographers. Perfection in Biography. (p. 1.)-Burns one of the most considerable British men of the eighteenth century: An age the most prosaic Britain had yet seen. His hard and most disadvantageous conditions. Not merely as a Poet, but as a Man, that he chiefly interests and affects us. His life a deeper tragedy than any brawling Napoleon's. His heart, erring and at length broken, full of inborn riches, of love to all living and lifeless things. The Peasant Poet bears himself among the low, with whom his lot is cast, like a King in exile. (4.)-His Writings but a poor mutilated fraction of what was in him, yet of a quality enduring as the English tongue. He wrote, not from hearsay, but from sight and actual experience. This, easy as it looks, the fundamental difficulty which all poets have to strive with. Byron, heartily as he detested insincerity, far enough from faultless. No poet of Burns's susceptibility from first to last so totally free from affectation. Some of his Letters, however, by no means deserve this praise. His singular power of making all subjects, even the most homely, interesting. Wherever there is a sky above him, and a world around him, the poet is in his place. Every genius an impossibility. till he appears. (8.)—Burns's rugged earnest truth, yet tenderness and sweet native grace. His clear graphic descriptive touches' and piercing emphasis of thought. Professor Stewart's testimony to Burns's intellectual vigour. A deeper insight than any 'doctrine of association. In the Poetry of Burns keenness of insight keeps pace with keenness of feeling. Loving Indignation and good Hatred: Scots wha hae: Macpherson's Farewell: Sunny buoyant floods of Humour. (15.)-Imperfections of Burns's poetry: Tam o' Shanter, not a true poem so much as a piece of sparkling rhetoric: The Folly Beggars, the most complete and perfect as a poetical composition. His Songs the most truly inspired and most deeply felt of all his poems. His influence on the hearts and literature of his country: Literary patriotism. (23.)— Burns's acted Works even more interesting than his written ones; and these too, alas, but a fragment: His passionate youth never passed into clear and steadfast manhood. The only true happiness of a man: Often it is the greatest minds that are latest in obtaining it: Burns and Byron. Burns's hard-worked, yet happy boyhood: His estimable parents. Early dissipations. In Necessity and Obedience a man should find his highest Freedom. (29.)-Religious quarrels and scepticisms. Faithlessness: Exile and blackest desperation. Invited to Edinburgh: A Napoleon among the crowned sovereigns of Literature. Sir Walter Scott's reminiscence of an interview with Burns. Burns's calm manly bearing amongst the Edinburgh aristocracy. His bitter feeling of his own indigence. By the great he is treated in the customary fashion; and each party goes his several way. (33.)-What Burns was next to do, or to avoid His Excise-and-Farm scheme not an unreasonable one: No failure of external means, but of internal, that overtook Burns. Good beginnings. Patrons of genius and picturesque tourists: Their moral rottenness, by which he became infected, gradually eat out the heart of his life. Meteors of French Politics rise before him, but they are not his stars. Calumny is busy with him. The little great-folk of Dumfries: Burns's desolation. In his destitution and degradation one act of self-devotedness still open to him: Not as a hired soldier, but as a patriot, would he strive for the glory of his country. The crisis of his life: Death. (38.)-Little effectual help could perhaps have been rendered to Burns: Patronage twice cursed: Many a poet has been poorer, none prouder. And yet much might have been done to have

made his humble atmosphere more genial. Little Babylons and Babylonians: Let us go and do otherwise. The market-price of Wisdom. Not in the power of any mere external circumstances to ruin the mind of a man. The errors of Burns to be mourned over, rather than blamed. The great want of his life was the great want of his age, a true faith in Religion and a singleness and unselfishness of aim. (43⋅ )— Poetry, as Burns could and ought to have followed it, is but another form of Wisdom, of Religion. For his culture as a Poet, poverty and much suffering for a season were absolutely advantageous. To divide his hours between poetry and rich men's banquets an ill-starred attempt. Byron, rich in worldly means and honours, no whit happier than Burns in his poverty and worldly degradation: They had a message from on High to deliver, which could leave them no rest while it remained unaccomplished. Death and the rest of the grave: A stern moral, twice told us in our own time. The world habitually unjust in its judgments of such men. With men of right feeling anywhere, there will be no need to plead for Burns: In pitying admiration he lies enshrined in all our hearts. (48.)

THE LIFE OF HEYNE.

Stinted rub-a-dub

Professor Heeren's biographical and general literary abilities. style of thinking and writing: Rhetorical flourishes: Truthfulness and trustworthiness. (p. 54.)-Some account of Heyne's early years, given in his own words. Honesty, industry and almost destitution of his parents. Petty tyranny and rapacity: A juvenile would-be Brutus. Early schooling: hardships and helps: A quick scholar. His account of his boyhood rather barren and intolerant. Extraordinary school proficiency. A small degree of self-confidence awakened in him: General discontent : Becomes a private tutor. (56.)—At Leipzig University: ill-clothed, destitute of Books, with five shillings in his purse: He picked up what scraps of learning he could lay hold of: Ernesti the only teacher from whom he derived any benefit. Heyne's best teacher, himself: Without any clear aim, he set his heart on attaining knowledge, and no promise or threat could, turn him back. Occasionally gets employment in giving private lessons: Chooses the profession of law. Some Latin verses attract the notice of Count Brühl. Ministerial smiles and empty promises. Again helps himself by private teaching: A hard bed: Boiled pease-cods not unfrequently his only meal: A poor appointment. (62.)-His edition of Tibullus. His day of difficulty far from past. Some consequences of the Seven-Years War: Literary struggles. Accepts a tutorship in the family of Herr von Schönberg. Theresa Weiss: Her earnest intelligence, and good-heartedness: Friendship ripening into passion: Mutual confidence. Bombardment of Dresden: Flight, and helpless destitution. Theresa's extreme illness: She renounces the Catholic, and publicly embraces the Protestant Faith: Marriage: a bold step, but a right one. Domestic difficulties and hardships: Theresa's prompt courage. (67.)-Dawning of better days: Appointed Professor of Eloquence at Göttingen. His long life henceforth quietly and actively fruitful. His literary and other labours. Death of his noble-hearted Wife: Grounds of consolation. His friends provide him with a new Bride: She proved an excellent wife to him. State of education in Germany. Heyne's successful labours for the Göttingen University. He lived till he had completed all his undertakings; and died softly and gently in his eighty-third year. (73.)—His intellectual character. Founded a new epoch in classical study. A show of dulness and hardness in him, not intrinsically belonging to him: A kindly old man, whom the Germans have some reason to be proud of. Another proof that man is not the product of his circumstances, but that, in a far higher degree, the circumstances are the product of the man. (81.)

GERMAN PLAYWRIGHTS.

Comparative estimation of the playwright, millwright and cartwright.__England not so successful in the first species of carpentry as in the other two. The Playwrights of Germany a strong triumphant body: Interest in the Drama taking the place of interest in Politics. The world of pasteboard, and the world of fact. The study of German Literature, like all other earthly undertakings, has its negative as well as its positive side. The German Parnassus. Ill-fated Kotzebue, lifted up by the hollow balloon of popular applause. Melancholy end of all wind-bags. (p. 85.) Grillparzer, Klingemann and Müllner may stand as representatives of the Playwrights of Germany. Grillparzer, not without reluctance, named under the head of Playwrights: Might have done good service in some prose or small-poem department. Tricks of the trade: The public a dim-eyed animal, gullible to almost all lengths. Of Grillparzer's peculiar knacks, not very much to be said: His worst Play, the Ahn

frau; a deep tragedy of the Castle-Spectre sort. König Ottokars Glück und Ende, a much more innocent piece, full of action, though without any discernible coherence. Agglomeration is not creation, and avails little in Literature. King Ottokar's soliloquy in the last of his fields. A charitable hope for better things. (90.)-Dr. Klingemann one of the most indisputable Playwrights now extant. His materials chiefly rosin, oil-paper, vizards, scarlet drapery and gunpowder. The compound nowise unpleasant: If any man wish to amuse himself irrationally, here is ware for his money. Ahasuer, the Wandering Jew. Faust, and his melodramatic contract with the Devil: A few scenes, showing how Faust was carried off in thunder, lightning and blue fire. Dr. Klingemann, a bold perpendicular Playwright, entirely contented with himself and his handicraft. (97.)-Dr. Müllner supreme over all Playwrights: Might have made a very pretty Lawyer, but to set up for a Poet a different enterprise. Ever tempting us with some hope that here is a touch of Poetry; and ever disappointing us with an expanse of pure Prose. (105.)-Müllner's one receipt for play-making borrowed from Zacharias Werner: A pettifogging sheriff's-officer principle of Fate, the raw material of his whole tragedy-goods. The Greek idea of Fate, a lofty and consistent hypothesis. Dr. Müllner's Fate-tenet totally incredible even to himself: A mere craftsman's trick. His abilities and performances as a journalist: German editorial squabbles. The duty of Foreign Reviewers twofold: What to be welcomed ; and what to be rejected: Let every one be active for himself. (109.)

VOLTAIRE.

Resistless and boundless power of true Literature. Every Life a well-spring, whose stream flows onward to Eternity. Present aspect of a man often strangely contrasted with his future influence: Moses; Mahomet; the early Christians; Tamerlane and Faust of Mentz. How noiseless is Thought! (p. 120.)--Voltaire's European reputation. The biography of such a man cannot be unimportant. Differences of opinion: Necessity for mutual tolerance. Voltaire's character: Adroitness, and multifarious success: Keen sense of rectitude; and fellow-feeling for human suffering. (124.)-Not a 'great character; essentially a Mocker. Ridicule not the test of truth. The glory of knowing and believing, all but a stranger to him; only with that of questioning and qualifying is he familiar. His tragicomical explosions, more like a bundle of rockets than a volcano. Character of the age into which he was cast. What is implied by a Lover of Wisdom. Voltaire loved Truth, but chiefly of the triumphant sort. His love of fame: 'Necessity' of lying: Can either fly or crawl, as the occasion demands. (133.)-His view of the world a cool, gently scornful, altogether prosaic one. His last ill-omened visit to Frederick the Great. His women, an embittered and embittering set of wantons from the earliest to the last: Widow Denis ; the Marquise du Châtelet. The greatest of all Persifleurs. (145.)—His last and most striking appearance in society: The loudest and showiest homage ever paid to LiteraThe last scene of all. (154.)-Intellectual gifts: His power of rapid, perspicuous Arrangement: His Wit, a mere logical pleasantry; scarcely a twinkling of Humour in the whole of his numberless sallies. Poetry of the toilette: Criticisms of Shakspeare,--Voltaire, and Frederick the Great: Let justice be shown even to French poetry. (161.)--Voltaire chiefly conspicuous as a vehement opponent of the Christian Faith: Shallowness of his deepest insight: The Worship of Sorrow, godlike Doctrine of Humility, all unknown to him. The Christian Religion itself can never die. Voltaire's whole character plain enough: A light, careless, courteous Man of the World: His chief merits belong to Nature and himself; his chief faults are of his time and country. The strange ungodly Age of Louis XV.: Honour; Enlightened Self-interest; Force of Public Opinion. Novalis, on the worthlessness and worth of French Philosophy. The death-stab to modern Superstition. The burning of a little straw may hide the Stars; but they are still there, and will again be seen. (171.)

ture.

NOVALIS.

No good Book, or good thing of any sort, shows its best face at first: Improvisators, and their literary soap-bubbles. Men of genius: The wise man's errors more instructive than the truisms of a fool. What is called 'reviewing;' showing how a small Reviewer may triumph over a great Author, and what his triumph is worth. The writings of Novalis of too much importance to be lightly passed by. (p. 183.)— Novalis's birth and parentage: Religious and secluded Childhood: Schooling. Applies himself honestly to business. Death of his first love: Communings with Eternity. Influence on his character of this wreck of his first passionate wish: Doctrine