: pleased with himself, because he would willingly arrive at a degree of perfection in the manner of expressing his thoughts, of which neither words nor things are susceptible. He does not choose to satisfy himself with those indefinite terms, which perhaps agree better with the art of conversation than perfection itself he is sometimes displeased with others, because his doctrine, which is a little relaxed, and his sentiments, which are highly exalted, are not always easily reconciled. He contains within himself a French poet and a German philosopher who are alternately angry with each other but this anger is still very easy to bear; and his discourse, filled with ideas and knowledge, might supply many men of talent with a foundation for conversation of various sorts.' ; 1" Wieland, born in 1733. early displayed the characteristics of his later years, and preluded to that fluctuating imitation which, through life, was his inspiration. He confessed that he could read nothing with delight which did not set him to work at imitating it; and all his works are imitative. He began his studies at three years of age, and at seven, read Cornelius Nepos with enthusiasm. Between his twelfth and sixteenth years he read all the Roman writers, with Voltaire, Fontenelle, and Bayle. Xenophon and Addison followed; and, in his seventeenth year, he wrote an imitation of Lucretius (1751), and played off Bayle and Leibnitz against Aristotle, to the delight of a public which had the sublime stupidity to accept him as the German Lucretius.' The young Realist boldly proclaimed that happiness was the aim of Creation, the greatest psalm which could be sung in the Creator's glory. He changed about, however, and passed over to the Pietists for a time; but the imitative tendency which led him thither, as readily led him away again to Xenophon, Anacreon, Lucian, and the French. He stood in terror of Lessing; and his own disposition, also, moved him towards lighter, cheerfuller views of life. Lessing had made him acquainted with Shakspeare, and his prose translation of our greatest poet, which appeared in 1762-66, was the best service he rendered his nation. "In 1762 Wieland was brought into contact with 'good society' through Graf Stadion, and made acquaintance not only with the world, but with many English and French writers of the moral deistical school. who completed his emancipation from the Pietists, and taught him how to write for the world.' He became the favorite poet of good society. His tales and poems were all animated with an Epicurean morality, and written with a certain lightness and grace (German lightness and German grace-they never lost the national character) which gradually passed from lightness into voluptuousness and obscenity,-qualities not less acveptable to the mass of his readers, in spite of the indignation they roused The new writers, who have excluded all foreign influence from German literature, have been often unjust to Wieland; it is he, whose works, even in a translation, have excited the interested of all Europe; it is he who has rendered the science of antiquity subservient to the charms of literature; it is he also, who, in verse, has given a musical and graceful flexibility to his fertile but rough language. It is nevertheless true, that his country would not be benefited by possessing many imita tors of his writings: national originality is a much better thing; and we ought to wish, even when we acknowledge Wieland to be a great master, that he may have no disciples. CHAPTER V. KLOPSTOCK. IN Germany, there have been many more remarkable men of the English then of the French school. Among the writers formed by English literature, we must first reckon the admirable Haller, whose poetic genius served him so effectually, as a learned man, in inspiring him with the greatest enthusiasm for the beauties of nature, and the most extensive views of its various phenomena; Gessner, whose works are even more val in sterner circles. He appealed, indeed, piteously against his critics, from his lax writings to his moral life, and wished they could see him in his quiet domestic home; they would then judge otherwise of him.' In truth, his life was blameless, and he might, with Martial, have thrown the blame of his writings on his readers : 'Seria cum possim, quod delectantis malim At the same time of Goethe's appearance, Wieland was in his bad odor, ued in France than in Germany; Gleim, Ramler, etc., and above them all, Klopstock. His genius was inflamed by reading Milton and Young; but it was with him that the true German school first began. He expresses, in a very happy manner, in one of his odes, the emulation of the two Muses. THE TWO MUSES.1 "I saw-oh! saw I what the present views? I saw the German with the British Muse "Two goals before me did the prospect close, And crown'd the race: the oaks o'ershadow'd one "Used to the strife, the Muse of Albion stept "Her younger rival panted as she came, Yet panted manly; and a crimson hue "She strove with laboring bosom to contain "Proud of the bold One, of herself more proud, Thee, Tuisconé: 'Ha! in that oak-wood I grew with thee among the Bards, ""But the fame reach'd me, that thou wert no more! Forgive me that I learnt it not before: 1 We adopt the version of Mr. Wm. Nind. Odes of Klopstock, Londor 1848, p. 97.—Ed. "It stands before us. But the farther crown Seest thou beyond? That courage self-possess'd, I know the meaning they confess'd. "Yet weigh the hazard ere the herald sound! "She spake. The moment of decision stern 'I love thee, Briton, and admire: "But yet not more than immortality, And those fair palms! Reach, if thy genius lead, "And-how my heart against its barrier knocks!— "The herald sounds: they flew with eagle flight; I looked; but when the oaks were pass'd, my sight It is thus that the ode finishes, and there is a grace in not pointing out the victor. I refer the examination of Klopstock's works, in a literary point of view, to the chapter on German poetry, and I now confine myself to pointing them out as the actions of his life. The aim of all his works is either to awaken patriotism in his country, or to celebrate religion: if poetry had its saints, Klopstock would certainly be reckoned one of the first of them. The greater part of his odes may be considered as Christian psalms; Klopstock is the David of the New Testament; but that which honors his character above all, without speaking of his genius, is a religious hymn, under the form of an epic poem, called the Messias, to which he devoted twenty years. The Christian world already possessed two poems, the Inferno of Dante, and Milton's Paradise Lost: one was full of images and phantoms, like the external religion of the Italians. Milton, who had lived in the midst of civil wars, above all excelled in the painting of his characters; and his Satan is a gigantic rebel, armed against the monarchy of heaven. Klopstock has conceived the Christian sentiment in all its purity; he consecrated his soul to the divine Savior of men. The fathers of the Church inspired Dante; the Bible inspired Milton: the greatest beauties of Klopstock's poem are derived from the New Testament; from the divine simplicity of the Gospel, he knew how to draw a charming strain of poetry, which does not lessen its purity. In beginning this poem, it seems as if we were entering a great church, in the midst of which an organ is heard; and that tender emotion, that devout meditation, which inspires us in our Christian temples, also pervades the soul as we read the Messias. Klopstock, in his youth, proposed to himself this poem as the object and end of his existence. It appears to me that men would acquit themselves worthily, with respect to this life, if a noble object, a grand idea of any sort, distinguished their passage through the world; and it is already an honorable proof of character to be able to direct towards one enterprise all the scattered rays of our faculties, the results of our labor. In whatever manner we judge of the beauties and defects of the Messias, we ought frequently to read over some of its verses: the reading of the whole work may be wearisome, but every time that we return to it, we breathe a sort of perfume of the soul, which makes us feel an attraction to all things holy and celestial. After long labors, after a great number of years, Klopstock at length concluded his poem. Horace, Ovid, etc., have expressed in various manners, the noble pride which seemed tc insure to them the immortal duration of their works: and, "Exegi monumentum ære perennius ;"1 Nomenque erit indelibile nostrum." 1 "I have erected a monument more durable than brass." |