XXVIII. 1800-48. of a numerous assembly which is at liberty to testify its CHAP. weariness, for the auditors will not tolerate long-winded effusions, and the effect of speaking is generally in proportion to the clearness of its thought and the terseness of its expression. Thence the inimitable brevity and force of the Greek and Roman orators. But though these considerations may explain how the German prose, withal so different from their poetry, is so diffuse and tedious, they do not lessen the fault, nor render it the less true that he would confer the greatest obligation on German literature who should prevail on their writers to cut their long sentences into four, their short into two. 43. If general and widespread fame, at least among scholars and learned men, is to be taken as the test Niebuhr. of real merit, NIEBUHR must be placed at the head of the historians of Germany. He undoubtedly possesses merits of a very high order. To the vast learning and almost incredible industry which seems in a manner indigenous in German scholars, he has added the rarer gifts of a philosophic turn of mind and aptitude for general conclusions. He possesses the power, the distinctive mark of genius, of extracting conclusions of lasting value from particular events, and bringing an infinite multitude of detached authorities to bear upon the conclusions which he wished to establish. He has evinced a rare sagacity in treating of the early history of Rome, and separating the real from the imaginary in its charming legends. But with these remarks the measure of just praise to him seems to be exhausted: what more is given, and much often is, seems rather the zeal of partisanship or the affectation of scholarship than the impartial estimate of discriminating criticism. His style is obscure, his sentences long, his narrative neither pictorial nor dramatic. Subsequent writers, and Arnold in particular, have extracted much which they have rendered interesting from his pages; but we will search for it in vain in those pages themselves. To the most enthusiastic scholar it is XXVIII. CHAP. a heavy task to wade through his history. Even in the matters on which he is generally thought to have 1800-48. thrown most light-the early constitution of Rome and the real nature of the Agrarian law, the contests for which so violently shook its later days-what he has done is more to superadd extraneous authority to what was previously known than to have made new discoveries; there is scarce anything he has advanced on these points which is not to be gathered from Livy or Cicero. And supposing it to be true, as it probably is, that he has shown that the authentic history of Rome begins with Ancus Martius, much is not gained for the interests of mankind by classing all previous myths with the immortal fairy tales which first charmed our childhood. 44. If Niebuhr's usefulness and fame have been seriously Heeren. impaired by the want of lucidity in his style, of order in his arrangement, and brevity in his expression, the same cannot be said of the next great author who in recent times has devoted his energies to the elucidation of ancient story. Till we open the pages of HEEREN We are wholly unaware what treasures we really possess in regard to the early ages of the world, and what a graphic and complete future may be framed by modern genius from the materials which have floated down the stream of time. His histories of the Assyrians, the Persians, the Egyptians, the Carthaginians, the early Greeks and Romans, seem from their completeness, the vividness of the pictures they contain, to be rather the annals of contemporary nations than the history of those which have long since disappeared from the face of the earth. They have justly formed part of the education of youth in every country of Europe, but they are not less charming to the advanced in years, as bringing to his eyes, after the heat of the day is over, the images and ideas which first attracted his youth. Heeren has as much learning as Niebuhr, though, as being diffused over a wider surface, it has not gained for him so widespread a reputa XXVIII. 1800-48. tion but he has not so much genius; his mind is pictorial CHAP. and discursive rather than profound. If he has seldom, however, struck out original thought himself, there is no one who has furnished in greater profusion the materials of it to others; and to a mind fraught with the events and social questions of modern times there are few works which in every page furnish more ample subjects of reflection. 45. MÜLLER has thrown over a most interesting part of modern story the light of genius and the stores of Müller. unbounded antiquarian research. His History of Switzerland is in some respects one of the most valuable historical works which modern literature has produced. It is remarkable how much more animated and pictorial it is than Schiller's History of the Thirty Years' War: the work of the antiquarian seems tinged with the colours of poetry, that of the poet darkened by the shades of prose. It is the same with Gibbon's Rome and Scott's Life of Napoleon,—a curious and apparently inexplicable circumstance. Müller's memory was prodigious. It is related of him that it was once betted that he would repeat on being asked, without previous warning, a complete list of all the sovereign counts of Bugey; he did so immediately, and taxed himself severely for want of memory in not being able to tell whether one of them whom he mentioned had been regent or sovereign. This 1 Mad. de prodigious knowledge of details, however, did not prevent Alle him from painting the interesting scenes and events with magne, ii. the colours of romance. His descriptions of the sublime scenery of the Alps are masterpieces of their kind; and his account of the great events of Swiss history, the conspiracy of the field of Grutli, the battles of Sempach and Morgarten, of Naefels and Morat, of Bâle and Grandcour, never were surpassed in pictorial power and romantic interest. His defect—and it is a very serious one, though common to him with the whole antiquarian school of historiaus is that he has overloaded his narrative with a mass Staël, de 321. CHAP. of insignificant details, which fatigue the reader's mind, are XXVIII. in themselves neither interesting nor instructive, and only 1800-48. withdraw the attention from objects of real importance. mer. 46. Sir Joshua Reynolds said that he would advise every young painter to take a brush dipped in deep shade, and go over three-fourths of the figures in his picture; and the remark is still more applicable to historians, because they are perplexed with a still greater number of small figures. Müller died poor, and left an injunction to sell his manuscripts to pay his debts; and if they did so, he bequeathed his watch to his servant: a sure proof that he had the integrity of a pure mind, for with his talents, if he had chose to pander to any of the passions or ambitions of the day, he might have made a fortune.— Semper bona mentis soror est paupertas." 66 Any account of the German historians would be imVon Ham- perfect if VON HAMMER were not mentioned. His minute and voluminous History of Turkey, in twelve volumes, is an invaluable resource to all who desire to make themselves acquainted with the transactions and character of that remarkable people, who during four centuries have played so very important a part in the world's history, and with whom its present destiny seems decisively wound up. He undoubtedly has many great merits. He is laborious, detailed, and circumstantial, and his examination of various authorities, both on the Asiatic and European side, give his history the peculiar value of being, in a manner, a digest of both. But with these remarks the meed of applause due to him must terminate he cannot be called a great historian. He has neither the general views of a philosopher, nor the artistic skill of a painter. He is neither discursive nor dramatic. Pictorial he certainly is in a very high degree, for great part of his work is taken up with descriptions of processions, dresses, and entertainments. There is no perspective in his pictures; everything is represented in the foreground, and worked out with equal XXVIII. 1800-48. minuteness. This defect, of all others the most fatal to CHAP. a historian, is in a peculiar manner conspicuous in his writings. If any one doubts it, he is recommended to try to read his twelve volumes. Genius is shown as much in what is rejected as what is retained in history; and it is in the judgment with which insignificant details are dropped out, even more than the skill with which interesting or material ones are portrayed, that the skill and discrimination of the artist is evinced. 47. HERDER was more a poet than a historian: his works are rather fitted to fascinate the imagination than instruct Herder. the understanding. Considered in the former point of view, however, they have a very great charm. His Philosophy of History has no pretensions to that character; but it is a brilliant series of pictures of ancient and remote periods, which almost bring them before our eyes in the days of their pristine splendour. The chapters on Persepolis and Babylon, on the Persians and Egyptians, carry us back to the days of Cyrus and Darius, of Sesostris and Cleopatra. His essay on the Poetry of the Jews, in like manner, is tinged with the soul of oriental song; and never were the ideas, manners, and habits of the children of the desert, who pervade every part of the East, unfolded with more graphic power, or stricter observance of the truth of nature. He has even gone so far as to imitate the versification of the Hebrews, and that repetition of the same image or idea in different terms, which constitutes so remarkable a feature in their "Art and nature," says he, poetry. he, " preserve always an imposing uniformity in the midst of their variety." This is undoubtedly true, and it is a truth applicable to others of the fine arts besides poetry. Witness the imposing grandeur of the avenue of sphinxes at Luxor, the charming identity of the columns in the Parthenon of Athens, or the façade of the Louvre at Paris. There is scarcely any form in nature so revolting that it may not be rendered imposing, or even sublime, by being repeated 66 |