VI. THE BEETLE. Poor hobbling Beetle, needst not haste; Should Traveller Traveller thus alarm? Pursue thy journey through the waste, Not foot of mine shall work thee harm. Who knows what errand grave thou hast, Man's bread lies 'mong the feet of men; And if thy Wife and thou agree But ill, as like when short of victual, I swear, the Public Sympathy Alas, and I should do thee skaith, Pass on, poor Beetle, venerable Art thou, were wonders ne'er so rife; Thou hast what Bel to Tower of Babel Not gave the chief of wonders - LIFE. Also of ancient family,' Though small in size, of feature dark. What Debrett's Peer surpasseth thee? Thy Ancestor was in Noah's Ark. VII. TO-DAY. So here hath been dawning Think wilt thou let it Slip useless away. Out of Eternity This new Day is born; Into Eternity, At night, will return. Behold it aforetime No eye ever did : So soon it forever From all eyes is hid. Here hath been dawning Another blue Day: Think wilt thou let it VIII. FORTUNA. The wind blows east, the wind blows west, And the frost falls and the rain : A weary heart went thankful to rest, And must rise to toil again. The wind blows east, the wind blows west, And there comes good luck and bad; The thriftiest man is the cheerfullest. 'Tis a thriftless thing to be sad, sad, 'Tis a thriftless thing to be sad. The wind blows east, the wind blows west; This world, they say, is worst to the best; The wind blows east, the wind blows west; What skills it to mourn or to talk? A journey I have, and far ere I rest; I must bundle my wallets and walk, walk, I must bundle my wallets and walk. The wind does blow as it lists alway; I also will wander mine. SUMMARY OF CONTENTS. JEAN PAUL FRIEDRICH RICHTER. A WELL-WRITTEN life almost as rare as a well-spent one. Döring's Gallery of Weimar Authors: His helpless biographical method: No pique against him, poor man. His No-Life of Richter. (p. 5). — Jean Paul little known out of Germany. The leading events of his life: Personal characteristics. His multifarious Works. (9). Must be studied as well as read. Eccentricities: Every work embaled in some fantastic wrappage. Not affectation: Consistent enough from his own point of vision. (15).— Intellect, imagination, and humour: Sport the element in which his nature lived and worked. He loved all living with the heart of a brother. True Humour a kind of inverse sublimity, exalting into our affections what is lowly: In this quality Richter excels all German authors. (18). — All genuine things are what they ought to be: A harmonious development of being, the object of all true culture. Richter's worst faults nearly allied to his best merits. (23). — Imperfection of his Novels: A true work of art requires to be fused in the mind of its creator. Chiefly successful in his humorous characters, and with his heroines: His Dreams. His Philosophy not mechanical. Richter, in the highest sense of the word, religious: The martyr Fearlessness combined with the martyr Reverence. Extract from Quintus Fixlein: A Summer Night. Richter's value as a writer. (25). STATE OF GERMAN LITERATURE. Franz Horn's merits as a literary Historian. (p. 30). — French scepticism about German literature. Duty of judging justly: Human Society, at the present era, struggling to body itself forth anew: Necessity for an open mind. The French mind conspicuously shut: English ignorance of Germany accounted for. Difficulty of judging rightly the character of a foreign people. The Germans in particular have been liable to misrepresentation. Madame de Staël's Allemagne did much to excite a reasonable curiosity: Promise of better knowledge and friendlier intercourse. (32). |