who once appeared to him in a dream, was, it appears, no other than the beautiful princess herself, and the same lady whose bridegroom Charlemagne had ordered him to kill. He feels very bewildered. Matters are now drawing to a conclusion. The Kaliph, his Emir, and daughter, are sitting at table. Huon enters, cuts off the bridegroom's head, and imprints the three kisses on the maid's rosy lips. Then follows a scene that baffles description; but the buglehorn being put into requisition, their wrath only vents itself in wild capers. Huon's mission being only half fulfilled, extracts then the molar teeth and the grey hair, and when both are pulled out, a terrific uproar ensues, against which even the sounds of the bugle do not seem to avail. Oberon appears, delivers them and conducts them to the shore of Ascalon. Here he bids them farewell, after having en joined them to speed their flight, so as not to be overtaken by the enraged sultan. They are told also that they would find a ship in the harbour which in six or seven days would take them to Lepanto; another to Salerno, from which place they were to proceed to Rome. But,' adds the dwarf, 'do not marry until the pope has given his sanction. Und tief, o Hüon, sei's in deinen Sinn ge- So lange bis der fromme Papst Sylvester Betrachtet euch als Bruder und als Schwe ster. Dass der verbotnen süssen Frucht Sich Oberon von euch auf ewig trennen Huon, however, naturally impatient, and at the risk of dispensing with the pope's blessing, does not follow this advice, and, wooing thus, incurs the displeasure of Oberon; his gifts lose also their talismanic properties. After many trials and adventures in which they prove their mutual love, Oberon forgives the offence at a time when his reconciliation with his own wife Titania takes place. They then enter the harbour of fortune, Rezia having changed her name for that of Amanda, and return finally to the court of Charlemagne, to live there in happiness and peace for many a year. 'MUSARION,' Or the philosophy of the graces, a poem, sparkling, stirring, appealing to the passions within, though 'légèrement soupoudré' on the top, has all the defects and merits of Wieland's productions. We meet here' Musarion,' somewhat outrée in her tastes, whose charms have caused Phanias, and his two friends the philosophers, Kleanth and Teophron, to make a combined declaration of love, the more intense because treble. Musarion treats the philosophers rather contemptuously, if she really did utter the following words :— Nun, bei Dianen! Freund, Die Liebe macht bei dir sehr klägliche Geberden; Sie spricht so weinerlich, dass mir's unmöglich scheint, In diesen Ton jemals gestimmt zu werden. Die hohe Schwärmerei taugt meiner Seele nicht, So wenig als Theophron's Augenweide Mein Element ist heit're sanfte Freude, Und alles zeigt sich mir in rosenfarb'nem Licht! Ich liebe dich mit diesem sanften Triebe, Der Zephyrn gleich das Herz in leichte Wellen setzt, Nie Stürm' erregt, nie peinigt, stets ergötzt; Wie ich die Grazien, wie ich die Musen liebe, So lieb ich dich, &c., &c., &c. And then she proceeds, and expresses her sentiments in language too fervent to be repeated here. CRITICISMS ON WIELAND. 'If in Klopstock we have the representative of German idealism. in Wieland we have the representation of German realism, Wieland is sensuous, where Klopstock is super-sensuous; rational, where Klopstock is sentimental; philosophy and history rule his muse, as religion and music ruled that of Klopstock; and he is eminently didactic, where Klopstock is eminently lyrical. Wieland had a marked preference for the later classics, and the French and Italian poets, as Klopstock had for the northern and English. Voltaire was, to Wieland, what Young was to Klopstock. Even on English ground the same contrast is observable. Wieland takes up Shaftesbury and Shakespeare; Klopstock, Young, Richardson, and Milton. Klopstock was terribly in earnest,' as Kemble said of Kean; Wieland was a gay, light, wandering nature, incapable of any profound earnestness. If we have called one the German Wordsworth, we may call the other, in the same loose way, the German Moore.'-G. H. LEWES. Life of Goethe. Vol. I. p. 252. Goethe, in speaking of Oberon, says: "The gold and crystal contained therein, will remain as long as Germany shall know how to appreciate the masterpieces of poetry.' 'He possessed, among all, the finest natural disposition. He had already cultivated his mind in those regions, so pleasing to the young; but, when disappointed by what we call experience, and by his contact with the world and women, he embraced the real, and pleased himself and others in the conflict of both worlds, where, between the humourous and serious, his talent shews itself best in light skirmishes. "Er besasz unter allen das schönste Naturell. Er hatte sich früher in jenen ideellen Regionen ausgebildet, wo die Jugend so gern verweilt; da ihm aber diese durch das, was man Erfahrung nennt, durch Begegnisse an Welt und Weibern, verleidet wurden, so warf er sich auf die Seite des Wirklichen, und gefiel sich und andern im Widerstreite beider Welten, wo sich zwischen' Scherz und Ernst, im leichten Gefecht, sein Talent am allerschönsten zeigt.-AUS GOETHE'S Dichtung und Wahrheit. It was Wieland,' says Menzel, who transported into our German woods and Gothic cities, the light spirit of Athens, though not without an admixture of the still greater levity and playfulness of French genius. Far from being the seducer of a nation, Wieland has rather brought back a people, already corrupted by the gallomania, to decency and moderation, to cheerful, social enjoyment; for only the later writers, under cover of lofty sensibilities, circulated the poison of that morbid sentimentalism so entirely foreign to the sound heart of Wieland.' HERDER. MORE painstaking than a genius, this great and good man, upon whom Hamann, the 'Magus of the North,' had exercised so beneficial an influence, possessed, in a lesser degree, the intuitive qualities of the mind. Whilst in Lessing we see the stamp of a strong-willed individuality, we detect in Herder's production often want of method and decision. The tone of sober reasoning in his poems, mostly of a didactic lyrical character, frequently mars, if we except a few among them, the interest of the reader, anxious to see in poetry the field on which the imagination may roam about at pleasure, and where we see vivid description and beauty of language harmoniously blended. Herder, on the other hand, possessed, in a high degree, the faculty of identifying himself with the spirit of foreign nations. His 'Stimmen der Völker,' a well translated collection of the poems of different nations, reflect the image of humanity in all its purity. Here the nations pass in succession before our eyes, we hear their voices, their spirit is under the hand of the mental sculptor, infused, as it were, into ours. In his 'Cid,' published after his death, we have a free translation of Spanish popular Romances, celebrating the deeds of that hero, and in his greatest work, 'Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit,' he points out the duties of man, showing that, by observing the immutable laws of nature, we have the best guide to lead us through the intricacies of life. To history he assigns therein a sphere unknown before; the various nations are brought before us, we breathe their very soul, and obtain a thorough knowledge of their characters. He judges them with impartiality, and defends, at the same time, the cause of humanity so enthusiastically and convincingly, as to recommend this work to the study of the statesman and philosopher. Works having for immediate object the happiness of the human race, should more especially attract our attention, and prompt us to carry out the good intentions of the philanthropist. Writers of eminence, like Bossuet, Voltaire, de Sismondi, Thierry, Hume, Gibbon, and Schiller, in treating the same subjects, confined themselves more to those nations who had played a prominent part in the annals of mankind; but Herder made it his study to trace universal history, to watch the development, progress and decline of nations, whatever their race, climate, or mental standard, with a view of impressing on those more favoured by nature, or more mentally gifted, the duty of improving the condition of their fellow-men, and thus to testify their gratitude towards Providence which created nothing in vain, however apparently inferior it may appear to the human understanding; or, to use Herder's own words: "Wer die Sache des Menschengeschlechts als seine betrachtet, Herder points out the rocks on which the state-vessels had been wrecked, teaches a lesson to the present and future generation, and shows that the highest and noblest aspirations of man are those which tend to the promoting of religion, civilization, and humanity. His watchword was humanity, his mission to kindle lofty feelings, to make men mindful of their origin, and by pointing out the image of their own godhead, draw them from a terrestrial to a higher sphere. To be a man, in the highest meaning of the sense, was Herder's aim throughout his life. He has been misunderstood by opposing parties,' says Jean Paul, and not without reason, for he was not a star of the first magnitude, but rather a constellation. If not a poet, he was more, a poem himself, the purest Indo-Grecian epic of modern times. Greece he valued most; and though his poetical cosmopolitan taste made him cultivate also other fields, he, like a second Odysseus, after having returned from his long pilgrimage, returned with all the intensity of his first enthusiastic love to the beautiful soil of ancient Hellas! Hence his respect for everything Grecian, for every phase of Grecian life. Few men possessed, in the same degree, that high-bred mental culture, the Grand Seigneur' erudition, as Herder did. For whilst most writers delight in pursuing that which is rare and unknown in science, Herder received the broad streams of every knowledge in his heaven-reflected ocean. To the boldest freedom of thought and expression he united the utmost religious fervour. Never did he in his predilections for ancient Greece say or write anything wounding to the religious susceptibilities of his own contemporaries. He indignantly denounced everything immoral, from whatever quarter it might proceed. He was a northern oak, its branches consisting of various symbolic plants, a fortress covered with flowers. His sweetest voice was that of love, be it in addressing a child, sympathizing with the afflicted, or pouring out his sentiments in a poem. At once hero and child, he, in this respect, resembles Hamann, who stands before us in his dark niche' his brow surrounded with an eternal halo. His works, which can only be fully understood by his own contemporaries, contained the maxims of Socrates and Horace, harmoniously blended. Too much judged in detail, his great merit will be weighed hereafter in its totality in the diamond-scales of posterity.' Herder was born on the 25th of August, 1744, at Mohrungen, where his father, an humble schoolmaster, imparted to his son a strictly religious instruction. The excellent lessons instilled into his young mind by an affectionate mother left an indelible impression therein, and made him always venerate the memory of those who had sown the good seed. So great was his love of learning at this time already, that, when in the year 1760, the Rev. Mr. Trescho engaged him as secretary, he was compelled, by a serious inflammation of the eyes, caused by over-study, to relinquish his place. On this occasion, he made the acquaintance of a Russian surgeon, who, struck with young Herder's intelligence, offered to send him, at his own expense, to the university of Königsberg, a proposal gratefully accepted by the latter. His health, however, not allowing him to pursue his medical studies, he embraced theology, but, owing to his great poverty, he had to struggle against many obstacles. Appointed, in the year 1763, to the Collegium Fridericianum, he was enabled to attend lectures, and especially those of Kant, on astronomy and natural sciences. Kant's tenets did not attract him. Hamann, who exercised so great an influence on Herder, taught him English, and made him acquainted with Shakespeare and Ossian. His father, having died in 1763, young Herder took holy orders, and became, a year later, director of the cathedral school of Riga, |