Self-interest; Force of Public Opinion. Novalis, on the worthlessness and worth of French Philosophy. The death-stab of modern Superstition. The burning of a little straw may hide the Stars; but they are still there, and will again be seen. (65).

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. 79). - 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 of Renunciation.' Peace and cheerfulness of his life: Interest in the physical sciences. Acquaintance and literary coöperation with Schlegel and Tieck. Alarming illness: Hopeful literary projects: Gradual bodily decline, and peaceful death. Manners, and personal aspect. (87). Wonderful depth and originality of his writings: His philosophic mysticism. Idealism not confined to Germany. The Kantean view of the material Universe: Its intellectual and moral bearing on the practical interests of men. Influence on the deep, religious spirit of Novalis: Nature no longer dead, hostile Matter; but the veil and mysterious Garment of the Unseen: The Beauty of Goodness, the only real, final possession. (99). — Extracts from the Lehrlinge zu Sais, &c.; Manifold significance of all natural phenomena to the true observer; Beauty and omnipotence of childlike intuition; How the chastened understanding may be brought into harmony with the deepest intuitions, and the most rigid facts: Nature, as viewed by the superstitious fanatic, the utilitarian inquirer, the sceptical idealist, and the regenerate Soul of man: The mechanics and dynamics of Thought; Eclectic Philosophers: Philosophic Fragments. (108). - Novalis as a Poet: Extracts from Hymns to the Night, and Heinrich von Ofterdingen. His writings an unfathomed mine, where the keenest intellect may find occupation enough: His power of intense abstraction: His chief fault a certain undue passiveness. Likeness to Dante and Pascal. Intelligent, well-informed minds should endeavour to understand even Mysticism. Mechanical Superciliousness versus living Belief in God; the victory not doubtful. (122).

SIGNS OF THE TIMES.

Our grand business, not to see what lies dimly in the distance; but to do what lies clearly at hand: Prophetic folly, and spiritual contagion.

The Present always an important time. The Age of Machinery, in every outward and inward sense: Cases in point, from hatching Chickens, to developing the young Idea; from 'Interrogating Nature,' up to delivering one's soul from Purgatory. (p. 135). No Philosophy of Mind to be found out of Germany. Mathematics all gone to mechanism. Locke's Essay, a singular emblem of the spirit of the times: Scotch and French mental-mechanism. The Machine of Society: Social mechanism more prized than individual worth. All wise inventions or discoveries, all great movements whatsoever spring inevitably from the individual souls of men. Mechanical and Dynamical provinces of human activity: Men have lost their belief in the Invisible: and believe, and hope, and work only in the Visible. Intellectual dapperlings, and their 'closet-logic' rushlights: One wise man stronger than all men foolish. (142). - Religion no longer a thousand-voiced Psalm, from the heart of Man to his invisible Father; but a wise, prudential feeling, grounded on mere calculation. The working Church of England at this moment in the Editors of Newspapers. Even Poetry has no eye for the Invisible: Not a matin or vesper hymn to the Spirit of Beauty; but a fierce clashing of cymbals, as children pass through the fire to Moloch. Our superior morality' properly an 'inferior criminality:' Truth and Virtue no longer loved, as they ought and must be loved: Beyond money and money's worth, our only blessedness is Popularity. (155). Bright lights, as well as gloomy shadows. The wisdom and heroic worth of our forefathers we may yet recover. The darkest hour is nearest the dawn. (159).

·

JEAN PAUL FRIEDRICH RICHTER AGAIN.

The best celebrity does not always spread the fastest. Richter's slow, but sure reception in England. His life, like most literary lives, somewhat barren of outward incidents; yet containing a deeper worth than any such interest could impart. Difficulty and value of real Biography. Insufficiency of Otto's Life of Richter. (p. 162). — Richter's birth, parentage and pedigree: His Father, a poor, hard-working Clergyman, loved and venerated by his flock. Not by money, or money's worth, that Man lives and has his being: To a rich spirit, Life cannot be poor. Young Paul's Idyl-Kingdom and little Pastoral World, sketched by himself: O God! I thank thee for my Father! (170). — Early education: Latin vocables; dreary reading; child-glimpses into the infinity of Nature, and his own Soul. In his thirteenth year the family removed to a better church-living at Schwarzenbach. He now got access to books, and better teaching. Early theological speculations, inclining strongly to the heterodox side.' Loses his Father: Pecuniary troubles. Aversion for History and Geography. A school-disputation: Paul triumphant over Orthodoxy and dull Authority: Silence, Sirrah!' (176). - At Leipzig University: Obtains little furtherance from established teachers; and endeavours to work out an intellectual basis of his own. Poverty, not in the shape of Parsi

mony, but in the far sterner one of actual Want. His Mother, quite unable to help herself, could afford him no assistance. A high, cheerful Stoicism grew up in him: Wise maxims for so young a man. His first productions: No demand for them. Magazine writing. He lived, like the young ravens, how he could: He had looked Desperation in the face, and found that for him she was not desperate. Blessings of early poverty. (180). Richter's gallant self-dependence: His free and easy style of dress: Horror of his more courtly neighbours: Seven-years' costume controversy; and final magnanimous compliance with the wishes of all Christian persons. (189). His singular literary establishment at Hof. Of all literary phenomena, that of a literary man daring to believe that he is poor, may be regarded as the rarest. No Men of Letters' now; only Literary Gentlemen,' and a degree of rickety Debility unexampled in the history of Literature. Richter survives his exclusion from the little 'West-end' of Hof. His sudden and decisive triumph, after a valiant struggle of ten years. His poor Mother is released from her troubles: The Hof household broken up. His reception by the high and titled of his country: His marriage. (194). Removes to Weimar: Illustrious companionship: Literary activity. Receives a pension from the Prince Primate Dalberg: Settles in Baireuth: Public honour, and domestic happiness: Unwearied diligence in his vocation. Loss of his only son: Sickness, and almost total blindness: Death. (204). - Richter's intellectual and literary character. Extracts; Miniature sketches of Herder, Jacobi, Goethe, Luther, Klopstock, Schiller; A fair-weather scene; A bridegroom and bride; On Daughter-full Houses. Richter's vastness of Imagination: Rapt, deep, Old-Hebrew spirit of his Dreams: His Dream of Atheism. A true Poet, and among the highest of his time, though he wrote no verses. (208).

ON HISTORY.

History, man's earliest and simplest expression of Thought: As we do nothing but enact History, so likewise we say little but recite it. Ancient and modern historians. Vanity of all would-be 'Philosophies of History: Before Philosophy can teach by Experience, Philosophy must first know how to do it; and above all, have the Experience intelligibly recorded. Infinite complexity of the simplest facts constituting the Experience of Life. The living, actual History of Humanity consists of far other and more fruitful activities than those recorded in history-books. (p. 228). Worth and worthlessness of historic testimonies; the Seer, and mere Onlookers. Inevitable discrepancy between a mere linear Narrative of successive events; and the actual, infinitely-related Aggregate of Activities, the daily record of which could alone constitute a complete History. Better were it that mere earthly historians should lower their pretensions to Philosophy; and aim only at some faithful picture of the things acted. (232). — The historical Artist, and the historical Artisan.

Growing feeling of the infinite nature of History. Division of labour: The Political and the Ecclesiastic historian: Church History, could it speak wisely, would have momentous secrets to teach. Histories of a less ambitious character. Old healthy identity of Priest and Philosopher. Historic Ideals: Necessity for honest insight. (235).

LUTHER'S PSALM.

The great Reforiner's love of music and poetry, one of the most significant features in his character. in fit Words, as in fit Actions. acting, speaking or writing. (p. 241).

His poetic feeling not so much expressed And yet it is the same Luther, whether His Psalm, Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott.

SCHILLER.

Correspondence between Schiller and Goethe. Natural curiosity respecting great men: Value of the scantiest memorials that will help to make them intelligible. It can be no true greatness, that a close inspection would abate a worthy admiration of. The Letters of Schiller and Goethe: Their entire sincerity of style: Turn mostly on compositions, publications, philosophies. An instructive record of the mental progress of their respective writers. (p. 245). Schiller's mode of thought and utterance more European than national: His ready and general acceptance with foreigners. High struggle, and prophetic burden of every true Poet. Schiller's personal history. His life emphatically a literary one: Something Priestlike, almost monastic in its character. His parentage and youth: Schooling: Hardships and oppressions from the Duke of Würtemberg: Not in Law, or Medicine; nor in any marketable occupation, can his soul find content and a home. His restless struggling to get free. Publication of the Robbers. Escape from the harsh tyranny of the Duke. Henceforth a Literary Man; and need appear in no other character. (251). — His mild, honest character everywhere gains him friends. His connexion with Goethe the most important event of his literary life: Their mutual esteem, and zealous coöperation. Schiller's quiet, unconquered heroism through fifteen years of unremitted pain. The foolish Happiness-controversy: The whole argument, like every other, lies in the confusion of language: True Welfare, and mere sensuous Enjoyment: Mind rersus Matter. (265). Schiller's character as a man. In his life the social affections played no deeply absorbing part: It was toward the Ideal, not the Actual, that his faith and hope were chiefly directed: His habits were solitary; his chief business and pleasure lay in silent meditation. Some account of his ordinary mode of life. He mingles little in the controversies of his time; and alludes to them only from afar. His high conception of the mission of the true Poet. His genius reflective rather than creative; philosophical and oratorical rather than essentially poetic.

For the most part, the Common is to him still the Common. Closely connected with this imperfection, both as cause and consequence, is his singular want of Humour. Yet there is a tone in some of his later pieces, breathing of the very highest region of Art. (273). Schiller's dramatic success. Illustrations of his mental progress; turbid ferocities of the Robbers, contrasted with the placidly victorious strength of his maturer works. The like progress visible in his smaller Poems: His Alpenlied. Schiller's Philosophic talent: Interest in Kant's System. His Esthetic Letters. Schiller and Goethe. (283).

THE NIBELUNGEN LIED.

About the year 1757, a certain antiquarian tendency in literature, a fonder, more earnest looking back into the Past, began to manifest itself in all nations. Growth and fruit of this tendency in Germany. The Nibelungen, a kind of rude German Epos: It belongs specially to us English Teutones, as well as to the German. Northern Archæology, a chaos of immeasurable shadows: The Heldenbuch, the most important of these subsidiary Fictions; and throwing some little light on the Nibelungen: Outline of the Story. Early adventures of the brave Siegfried, whose history lies at the heart of the whole Northern Traditions: His Invulnerability, wonderful Sword Balmung, and Cloak of Darkness: His subsequent history belongs to the Song of the Nibelungen. (p. 296). — Singular poetic excellence of that old Epic Song: Simplicity, and clear decisive ring of its language: Deeds of high temper, harsh self-denial, daring and death, stand embodied in soft, quick-flowing, joyfully-modulated verse: Wonderful skill in the construction of the story; and the healthy subordination of the marvellous to the actual. Abstract of the Poem, - How Siegfried wooed and won the beautiful Chriemhild; and how marvellously he vanquished the Amazonian Brunhild for king Gunther: Heyday of peace and gladdest sunshine. Jealousy of queen Brunhild: How the two queens rated one another; and how Chriemhild extinguished Brunhild. Brunhild in black revenge gets Siegfried murdered: Unhappy Chriemhild, her husband's grave is all that remains to her: Her terrible doomsday vengeance. (314). Antiquarian researches into the origin of the Nibelungen Lied: Historical coincidences. The oldest Tradition, and the oldest Poem of Modern Europe. Who the gifted Singer may have been, remains altogether dark: The whole spirit of Chivalry, of Love and heroic Valour, must have lived in him and inspired him: A true old Singer, taught of Nature herself! (345).

GERMAN LITERATURE OF THE FOURTEENTH AND

FIFTEENTH CENTURIES.

Historical literary significance of Reynard the Fox. The Troubadour Period in general Literature, to which the Swabian Era in Germany an