especially, abounded. Thus it is well observed by Madame de Staël of the German writers of this new school, that "their characters, their habits, and their modes of reasoning, have led them to prefer that which is founded on the recollection of chivalry, on the wonders of the middle ages, to that which has for its basis the mythology of the Greeks." The literary independence of the Germans is illustrated with great vivacity and discrimination by that vigorous pen, the course of which we are humbly endeavouring to follow. "In Germany," she observes, "there is no standard of taste on any one subject; all is independent, all is individual. They judge of a work by the impression it makes, and never by any rule, because no rule is generally admitted; every author is at liberty to form a new sphere for himself. In France the greater number of readers will neither be affected, nor even amused, at the expence of their literary conscience: scrupulosity finds a refuge there. A German author finds his own public; in France the public commands authors. As in France, persons of cultivated minds are much more numerous than in Germany, the public there have much greater ascendancy; while the German writers, eminently raised above their judges, govern instead of receiving the law from them." We have already spoken much of the success of Madame de Staël in her discriminations of moral character. The diversities in the intellectual habits of different European nations are marked with a still more decisive fidelity of description; and in no instance more than in the comparison between the Germans and the English in this respect. "La littérature allemande est beaucoup plus connue en Angle terre qu'en France. On y étudie davantage les langues étrangères, et les Allemands ont plus de rapports naturels avec les Anglais qu'avec les Français; cependant il y a des préjugés, même en Angleterre, contre la philosophie et la littérature des Allemands. Il peut être intéressant d'en examiner la cause. "Le goût de la société, le plaisir et l'intérêt de la conversation ne sont point ce qui forme les esprits en Angleterre: les affaires, le parlement, l'administration, remplissent toutes les têtes, et les intérêts politiques sont le principal objet des méditations. Les Anglais veulent à tout des résultats immédiatement applicables, et de la naissent leurs préventions contre une philosophie qui a pour objet le beau plutôt que l'utile. "Les Anglais ne séparent point, il est vrai, la dignité de l'utilité, et toujours il sont prêts, quand il le faut, à sacrifier ce qui est utile à ce qui est honorable; mais ils ne se prêtent pas volontiers, comme il est dit dans Hamlet, à ces conversations avec l'air, dont les Allemands sont très épris. La philosophie des Anglais est dirigée vers les résultats avantageux au bien-être de l'humanité. Les Allemands s'occupent de la vérité pour elle-même, sans penser au parti que les hommes peuvent en tirer. La nature de leurs gouvernements ne leur ayant point offert des occasions grandes et belles de mériter la gloire et de servir la patrie, ils s'attachent en tout genre à la contemplation, et cherchent dans le ciel l'espace que leur étroite destinée leur refuse sur la terre. Ils se plaisent dans l'idéal, parcequ'il n'y a rien dans l'état actuel des choses qui parle à leur imagination. Les Anglais s'honorent avec raison de tout ce qu'ils possèdent, de tout ce qu'ils sont, de tout ce qu'ils peuvent être ; ils placent leur admiration et leur amour sur leurs lois, leurs mœurs et leur culte. Ces nobles sentiments donnent à l'ame plus de force et d'énergie; mais la pensée va peut-être encore plus loin quand elle n'a point de bornes ni même de but déterminé, et que, sans cesse en rapport avec l'immense et l'infini, aucun intérêt ne la ramène aux choses de ce monde." (Tom. I. p. 209.) As there has been no golden age in Germany like that of Pericles or Augustus, Leo the Tenth, or Louis the Fourteenth, so there has properly existed no school (in the signification of that term, as used to designate a class adopting the principles or manner of a great original) among the German literati. Though Madame de Staël mentions Winckelmann in the arts, Lessing in criticism, and Goëthe in poetry, as founding a true German school, she properly adds, "if we may so call that which admits of as many differences as there are individuals or varieties of talent." It is for this reason that, in treating of the literature of Germany, comprehending poetry, the dramatic art, novels, and history, she determines upon beginning by characterising the most celebrated men of letters in Germany, before she enters into the examination of their works. The literary characters whom she thus brings out in relief are Wieland, Klopstock, Lessing, Winckelmann, Goëthe, and Schiller. These sketches of literary character are not among the happiest exertions of her talent of personal delineation. Whether it is that we are wanting in the due relish of the German manners, or are uninitiated in those mysteries of composition of which the views of Madame de Staël are so profound, we must own that we do not distinctly comprehend, in many instances, the grounds on which Madame de Staël builds her admiration of these celebrated writers. There is, however, in her eulogy on Schiller, making due allowance for her characteristical manner, for a sort of mystical and ecstatic morality which colours her remarks on every subject, a great deal of peculiar force of sentiment and composition. As it is one of those passages which does not suffer by translation, it shall be placed within the reach of the mere English reader. "There is not a nobler course than that of literature, when it is pursued as Schiller pursued it. It is true, that in Germany there is : so much seriousness and probity, that it is there alone that we can be completely acquainted with the character and the duties of every vocation. Nevertheless Schiller was admirable among them all, both with respect to his virtues and his talents. His Muse was Conscience she needs no invocation, for we hear her voice at all times, when we have once listened to it. He loved poetry, the dramatic art, history, and literature in general, for its own sake. If he had determined never to publish his works, he would nevertheless have taken the same pains in writing them; and no consideration, drawn either from success, from the prevailing fashion, from prejudice, or from any thing, in short, that proceeds from others, could ever have prevailed on him to alter his writings: for his writings were himself; they expressed his soul; and he did not conceive the possibility of altering a single expression, if the internal sentiment which inspired it had undergone no change. Schiller, doubtless, was not exempt from self-love; for if it be necessary in order to animate us to glory, it is likewise so to render us capable of any active exertion whatever; but nothing differs so much from another in its consequences as vanity and the love of fame: the one seeks success by fraud, the other endeavours to command it openly; this feels inward uneasiness, and lies cunningly in wait for public opinion; that trusts its own powers, and depends on natural causes alone for strength to subdue all opposition. In short, there is a sentiment even more pure than the love of glory, which is, the love of truth: it is this love that renders literary men like the warlike preachers of a noble cause; and to them should henceforth be assigned the charge of keeping the sacred fire: for feeble women are no longer, as formerly, sufficient for its defence. "Innocence in genius, and candour in power, are both noble qualities. Our idea of goodness is sometimes debased by associating it with that of weakness; but when it is united to the highest degree of knowledge and of energy, we comprehend in what sense the Bible has told us, that God made man after his own image.' Schiller · did himself an injury, when he first entered into the world, by the wanderings of his imagination; but with the maturity of age, he recovered that sublime purity which gives birth to noble thought; with degrading sentiments he held no intercourse. He lived, he spoke, he acted, as if the wicked did not exist; and when he described them in his works, it was with more exaggeration and less depth of observation than if he had really known them. The wicked presented themselves to his imagination as an obstacle in nature, as a physical scourge; and perhaps in many respects they have no intellectual being; the habit of vice has changed their souls into a perverted instinct. "Schiller was the best of friends, the best of fathers, the best of husbands; no quality was wanting to complete that gentle and peaceful character which was animated by the fire of genius alone the love of liberty, respect for the female sex, enthusiastic admiration of the fine arts, inspired his mind; and in the analysis of his works it would be easy to point out to what particular virtue we owe the various productions of his masterly pen. It has been said that genius is all-sufficient. I believe it, where knowledge and skill preside; but when we seek to paint the storms of human nature, or fathom it in its unsearchable depths, the powers even of imagination fail; we must possess a soul that has felt the agitation of the tempest, but into which the Divine Spirit has descended to restore its serenity." (Vol. I. p. 273.) The chapter of this work, which treats of style and versification, where it does not carry instruction to the reader, conveys an image of the bold and excursive mind of the writer, who visits all subjects with equal vivacity of thought, if not with equal correctness of knowledge. She begins with remarking upon the advantages which languages of a Teutonic origin possess over those which are derived from the Latin in respect of their power of renewing and multiplying expressions out of their own stock, and in a mode always conformable to the genius of the people. "The nations of the Latin origin," she observes, "can, as one may say, enrich themselves only externally; they must have recourse to dead languages, to unproductive mines, for the extension of their empire." It appears to us that if a language is to be enriched by the adoption of new expressions, the repertory of words to which all nations seem alike to resort are the classical languages of antiquity. The Greek by its flexibility and the wonderful facility with which it slides into combination, and moulds itself into scientific forms, is an exhaustless magazine of supply. No doubt also, modern languages borrow insensibly from one another; but this is done without any reference to a common original. The influence of the air we breathe, of climate, and of soil, upon pronunciation-the tendency of the habitual sight of the sea to incline to thoughtfulness, by representing an image of infinity, and thus, by a process of association, to give to pronunciation more effeminacy and indolence, and the corroboration of the accent produced by living in mountainous regions, are among the theories of Madame de Staël, which are characterised by boldness rather than by any analogy of reasoning. We are happy to be informed by such a judge that the English language may be learned with a slight degree of study, as we are eager for its expansion, and challenge for it a field co-extensive with our glory. Of the difficulty of the German she has given one reason which involves great acuteness of observation: "A construction of phrases nearly similar to that which existed among the an VOL. V. NO. X. Ꮐ Ꮐ cients has been introduced into the German with greater facility than into any other European dialect; but inversions," she con tinues, “are rarely suitable to modern languages. The striking terminations of the Greek and Latin clearly pointed out the words which ought to be joined together even when they were separated: the signs of the German declensions are so indistinct, that we have a good deal of difficulty to discover, under colours so uniform, the words which depend on each other." 66 Madame de Staël observes, that "the German is the only modern language which has long and short syllables like the Greek and Latin; all the other European dialects are," according to her, more or less accented; but verse cannot be measured in the manner of the ancients according to the length of the syllables: accent gives unity to phrases, as well as to words. It is connected with the signification of what is said; we lay a stress on that which is to determine the sense; and pronunciation in thus marking the particular words refers them all to the principal idea. It is not thus," continues Madame de Staël, "with the musical duration of sound in language; this is much more favourable to poetry than accent, because it has no positive object, and affords only a high but indefinite pleasure, like all other enjoyments which tend to no determinate purpose." وو It seems to us that Madame de Staël has crowded together great deal of error into the above passage, and has made an unhappy confusion between accent, emphasis, and quantity. The wording of the passage seems to imply that the ancient languages possessed quantity without accent, and the modern accent without quantity. For this error there is some excuse, as it has been common among the French to deny quantity to any modern language, and thence sometimes to deduce the proposition that modern poetry has no true and permanent existence as such, but is subject to fluctuate and decay together with the modes of pronunciation. The truth certainly is, that quantity does exist and -must exist in all languages. In our own it is evident enough to an English ear that no dissyllable or polysyllable can be properly pronounced without dwelling longer on one syllable than another; although that which sometimes may induce an apprehension of the contrary is, that the long quantity and acute accent frequently fall on the same syllable. The English language admits a great variety of measures, which without prosody would not be possible, though the tendency of it is certainly strongest towards iambic and trochaic, which may be one reason why it cannot so easily be accommodated to the heroic measure of the ancients. Let a line of English iambic measure be pronounced |