dency towards deep emotion and sublime imagery, which characterizes, though in different forms, both English and German poetry. In justice, however, to the ingenious theory of Mad. de Staël, it ought to be observed, that the original character ascribed by her to the northern nations, must have disposed them to the adoption of a Protestant faith and worship, while the Popery of the south was naturally preserved by an early disposition to a splendid ceremonial, and a various and flexible mythology. The work is divided into four parts. On Germany and GerOn literature and the arts. On philosophy and morals. On religion and enthusiasm. man manners. The first is the most perfect in its kind; belongs the most entirely to the genius of the writer; and affords the best example of the talent for painting nations which we have attempted to describe. It seems also, as far as foreign critics can presume to decide, to be in the most finished style of any composition of the author, and more securely to bid defiance to that minute criticism which, in other works, her genius rather disdained than propitiated.* The Germans are a just, constant, and sincere people; with great power of imagination and reflection; without brilliancy in society, or address in affairs; slow, and easily intimidated in action; adventurous and fearless in speculation; often uniting enthusiasm for the elegant arts, with little progress in the manners and refinements of life; more capable of being inflamed by opinions than by interests; obedient to authority, rather from an orderly and mechanical character than from servility—having learnt to value liberty neither by the enjoyment of it, nor by severe oppression; devested by the nature of their governments, and the division of their territories, of patriotic pride; too prone in the relations of domestic life, to substitute fancy and feeling for positive duty; not unfrequently combining a natural character with artificial manners, and much real feeling with affected enthusiasm; divided by the sternness of feudal demarcation into an unlettered nobility, unpolished scholars, and a depressed commonalty; and exposing themselves to derision, when, with their grave and clumsy honesty, they attempt to copy the lively and dexterous profligacy of their southern neighbours. In the plentiful provinces of Southern Germany,† where religion as well as government shackled the activity of speculation, the people had sunk into a sort of lethargic comfort and stupid enjoyment:-it was a heavy and monotonous country, with no Part 1. chap. 1-4. † Part 1. chap. 5, 6, 7, 8. arts, except the national art of instrumental music:-no literature, a rude utterance;-no society, or only crowded assemblies, which seemed to be brought together for ceremonial, more than for pleasure;" an obsequious politeness towards an aristocracy without elegance." In Austria, more especially, are seen a calm and languid mediocrity in sensations and desires; a people mechanical in their very sports-" whose existence is neither disturbed nor exalted by guilt or genius, by intolerance or enthusiasm;" a phlegmatic administration, inflexibly adhering to its ancient course -repelling knowledge on which the vigour of states must now depend; great societies of amiable and respectable persons-which suggest the reflection, that "in retirement monotony composes the soul, but in the world it wearies the mind." In the rigorous climate and gloomy towns of Protestant Germany only, the national mind is displayed. There the whole literature and philosophy were assembled. Berlin was slowly rising to be the capital of enlightened Germany. The Duchess of Weimar, who compelled Napoleon to respect her in the intoxication of victory, had changed her little capital into a seat of knowledge and elegance, under the auspices of Goethe, Wieland, and Schiller. No European palace had assembled so refined a society since some of the small Italian courts of the sixteenth century. It is only by the protestant provinces of the north, that Germany is known as a lettered and philosophical country. From this admirable picture, we must now select specimens which convey a more just conception of its excellence than our cold abridgment. We begin by the beautiful observations on the character and destiny of women. «La nature et la société donnent aux femmes une grande habitude de souffrir, et l'on ne sauroit nier, ce me semble, que de nos jours elles valent, en général mieux que les hommes. Dans une époque où le mal universel est l'égoïsme, les hommes auxquelles tous les intérêts positifs se rapportent doivent avoir moins de générosité, moins de sensibilité que les femmes; elles ne tiennent à la vie que par les liens du cœur, et lorsqu'elles s'égarent, c'est encore par un sentiment qu'elles sont entraînées: leur personalité est toujours à deux, tandis que celle de l'homme n'a que lui-même pour but. On leur rend hommage par les affections qu'elles inspirent, mais celles qu'elles accordent sont presque toujours des sacrifices. La plus belle des vertus, le dévouement, est leur jouissance et leur destinée; nul bonheur ne peut exister pour elles que par le reflet de la gloire et des prosperités d'un autre; enfin, vivre hors de soi-même, soit par les idées, soit par les sentiments, soit sur-tout par les vertus, donne à l'ame un sentiment habituel d'elevation." “Dans le pays où les hommes sont appelés par les institutions politiques à exercer toutes les vertus militaires et civiles qu'inspire l'amour de la patrie, ils reprennent la superiorité qui leur appartient; ils rentrent avec éclat dans leurs droits de maître du monde; mais lorsqu'ils sont condamnés de quelque manière à loisiveté, ou à la servitude, ils tombent d'autant plus bas qu'ils devoient s'élever plus haut. La destinée des femmes reste toujours la même; c'est leur ame seule qui la fait, les circonstances politiques n'y influent en rien. Lorsque les hommes ne savent pas, ou ne peuvent pas employer dignement et noblement leur vie, la nature se venge sur eux des dons mêmes qu'ils en ont reçus; l'activité du corps ne sert plus qu'à la paresse de l'esprit; la force de l'ame devient de la rudesse; et le jour se passe dans des exercices et des amusements vulgaires, les chevaux, la chasse, les festins qui conviendroit comme délassement, mais qui abrutissent comme occupations. Pendant ce temps les femmes cultivent leur esprit, et le sentiment et la reverie conservent dans leur ame l'image de tout ce qui est noble et beau. "Les femmes Allemandes ont un charme qui leur est tout à fait particulier, un son de voix touchant, des cheveux blonds, un teint éblouissant; elles sont modestes, mais moins timides que les Anglaises; on voit qu'elles ont rencontré moins souvent des hommes qui leur fussent superieurs, et qu'elles ont d'ailleurs moins à craindre des jugements sévères du public. Elles cherchent à plaire par la sensibilité, à interesser par imagination; la langue de la poésie et des beaux arts leur est connue ; els font de la coqueterie avec de l'enthousiasme, comme on en fait en France avec de l'esprit et de la plaisanterie." Moralists and philosophers have often remarked, that licentious gallantry is fatal to love, and destructive of the importance of women. "I will venture to assert," says Madame de Staël, against the received opinion, that France was, perhaps, of all the countries of the world, that in which women had the least happiness in love. It was called the Paradise of Women, because they enjoyed the greatest liberty; but that liberty arose from the negligent profligacy of the other sex."* The observations which follow this remarkable testimony are so beautiful and forcible, that they ought to be engraven on the mind of every woman disposed to mumur at those restraints which maintain the dignity of womanhood. Some enthusiasm, says Mad. de Staël, or, in other words, some high passion, capable of actuating multitudes, has been felt by every people, at those epochs of their national existence, which are distinguished by great acts. Four periods are very remarkable in the progress of the European world. The heroic ages which founded civilization-republican patriotism, which was the glory of antiquity-chivalry, the martial religion of Europe-and the love of liberty, of which the history began about the period of the Reformation. The chivalrous impression is worn out in Germany; and, in future, says this generous and enlightened writer," nothing Part 1. chap. 4 great will be accomplished in that country, but by the liberal iupulse which has in Europe succeeded to chivalry." The society and manners of Germany are continually illustrated by comparison or contrast with those of France, Some passages and chapters on this subject, together with the author's brilliant preface to the thoughts of the Prince de Ligne, may be considered as the first contributions towards a theory of the talent (if we must not say of the art) of conversation, which affords so considerable a part of the most liberal enjoyments of refined life. Those, indeed, who affect a Spartan or monastic severity in their estimate of the society of capitals, may almost condemn a talent, which in their opinion only adorns vice. But that must have a moral tendency which raises society from slander or intoxication, to any contest and rivalship of mental power. Wit and grace are perhaps the only means which could allure the thoughtless into the. neighbourhood of reflection, and inspire them with some admiration for superiority of mind. Society is the only school in which the indolence of the great will submit to learn. Refined conversation is at least sprinkled with literature, and directed more often, than the talk of the vulgar, to objects of general interest. That talent cannot really be frivolous which affords the channel through which some knowledge, or even some respect for knowledge, may be insinuated into minds incapable of labour, and whose tastes so materially influence the community. Satirical pictures of the vices of a great society create a vulgar prejudice against their most blameless and virtuous pleasures. But, whatever may be the vice of London or Paris, it is lessened, not increased, by the cultivation of every liberal talent which innocently fills their time, and tends, in some measure, to raise them above malice and sensuality. And there is a considerable illusion in the provincial estimate of the immoralities of the capital. These immoralities are public, from the rank of the parties; and they are rendered more conspicuous by the celebrity, or perhaps by the talents, of some of them. Men of letters, and women of wit, describe their own sufferings with eloquence; the faults of others, and sometimes their own, with energy. Their descriptions interest every reader, and are circulated throughout Europe. But it does not follow, that the miseries or the faults are greater or more frequent than those of obscure and vulgar persons, whose sufferings and vices are known to nobody, and would be uninteresting if they were known. The second, and most generally amusing, as well as the largest part of this work, is an animated sketch of the literary history of Germany, with criticisms on the most celebrated German poets and poems, interspersed with reflections equally original and beautiful, tending to cultivate à comprehensive taste in the fine arts, and to ingraft the love of virtue on the sense of beauty. Of the poems criticised, some are well known to most of our readers. The earlier pieces of Schiller were generally read in translations of various merit-though, except the Robbers, they are not, by the present taste of Germany, placed in the first class of his works. The versions of Leonora, of Oberon, of Wallenstein, of Nathan, and of Iphigenia in Tauris, are among those which do the most honour to English literature. Goetz of Berlichenzen has been vigorously rendered by a writer, whose chivalrous genius, exerted upon somewhat similar scenes of British history, has since rendered him the most popular poet of his age. An epic poem, or a poetical romance, has lately been discovered in Germany, entitled Niebelungen-on the Destruction of the Burgundians by Attila; and it is believed, that at least some parts of it were composed not long after the event, though the whole did not assume its present shape till the completion of the vernacular languages about the beginning of the 13th century.* Luther's version of the scriptures is an epoch in German literature. One of the innumerable blessings of the Reformation was to make reading popular by such translations, and to accustom the people to weekly attempts at some sort of argument or declamation in their native tongue. The vigorous mind of the great Reformer gave to his translation an energy and conciseness, which made it a model in style, as well as an authority in language. Hagedorn, Weiss, and Gellert, copied the French without vivacity; and Bodmer imitated the English without genius. At length, Klopstock, an imitator of Milton, formed a German poetry, and Wieland improved the language and versification; though this accomplished writer has somewhat suffered in his reputation by the recent zeal of the Germans against the imitation of any reign, but especially of the French, school. "Il faut, pour imiter Voltaire, une insouciance moqueuse et philosophique qui rend indifferent à tout excepté la manière piquante d'exprimer cette insouciance. Jamais un Allemand ne peut arriver à cette brillante liberté de plaisanterie; la verité l'attache trop, il veut scavoir Part II. c. 4. et expliquer ce que les choses sont." "The genius of Klopstock was inflamed by the perusal of Milton and Young." This combination of names is astonishing to an English ear. It creates a presumption against the poetical sensibility of Klopstock, to find that he combined two poets, placed at An ingenious and celebrated writer has promised a more particular account of this most curious monument. SISMONDI, Litterature du Midi, vol. 1. p. 30. "Leurs ouvrages n'etoient que du Francais appesanti.” VOL. III. New Series. |