CHAP. often on a great scale: that is a truth of which the AsXXVIII. syrians at Nineveh and the Egyptians at Thebes have 1800-48. left many proofs; and however paradoxical it may ap 48. pear, it is undoubtedly true that more effect will often great reputation in Schlosser. Germany: there are several of the best judges in that country who consider him as entitled to a place beside the first historians of England or of modern France in philosophic eminence. His History of Europe during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries is certainly a very remarkable, and, considering the circumstances under which it was written, a surprising work; but it is far from being deserving of that high character. It has not the fault of the antiquarian historians; it generalises sufficiently, and is far from being overcharged with a multitude of insignificant details. But put beside Hume or Robertson, Macchiavelli or Montesquieu, Thucydides or Tacitus, the inferiority is at once apparent. There are general ideas in plenty, but they are those of the closet, not the forum. What is felt as wanting are those general remarks, drawn from a close observation of the collision of the different classes of mankind in a free community, or the contending ambitions of their rulers in despotic ones, which at once carry conviction home to every succeeding age. But the absence of this is not to be ascribed as a fault in Schlosser, so much as regarded as the inevitable result of ideas being formed out of the pale of freedom; and this consideration only places in a clearer light the duty incumbent on those who do enjoy that inestimable blessing, to observe human affairs with an impartial eye, unbiassed either by the vanity of popular applause or the seductions of courtly power. Among the eminent historians of modern Germany a prominent place must be assigned to RANKE, whose His XXVIII. 49. tory of the Popes, rendered into every civilised tongue, CHAP. has acquired a world-wide reputation. The subject is a very great one, possessed of that unity of interest which 1800-48. is so essential an element in success, and of undying in- Ranke. terest, for the papal policy is unchanged and unchangeable. No one can approach it without acknowledging the benefit he has conferred on the cause of historic truth. by his narrative, and the ability with which he has compressed into a very moderate compass the annals of the long series of the holy fathers. The work, however, has great deficiencies. It is wanting in interest, and its want is not redeemed by philosophic views. The extraordinary growth of the Reformation, its subsequent stationary condition during two hundred and fifty years, and the renewed vitality of Catholicism in these times, are portrayed, but they do not elicit from the author the reflections which such a series of events is fitted to awaken. No one can expect from a history of the Popes the interest in narrative or event which we see in Livy or Sallust; but we might see the graphic power in describing the changes of society which we admire in Robertson, the profound views which carry conviction to our minds in Guizot. What is awanting in Ranke may be judged of by what has been supplied in Macaulay's review of his work, one of the most brilliant of his many splendid productions. 50. SCHLEGEL has a very high reputation in Germany, and his Philosophy of History is often referred to as contain- Schlegel. ing profound and important views of human affairs. There does not appear to be any solid foundation for this opinion. The Philosophy of History may be a prodigy in Germany, but it is a very ordinary affair elsewhere. It is little more than a clear and succinct abridgment of universal history for the use of schools and colleges, with a few observations interspersed which belong to a higher class. Compared with the writings of Macchiavelli, Montesquieu, or Guizot, it is as nothing. Nowhere does it so XXVIII. 1800-48. CHAP. clearly appear how essential the contests of freedom are to the growth of just views of human affairs, or the real causes which are at work in the affairs of nations. Without entire liberty of thought and action it is vain to expect that the secret springs of events are to be discovered. Machiavelli reached them from a contemplation of the republics of modern, Montesquieu from the study of those of ancient Italy. In the despotic atmosphere of Vienna they cannot be attained. The real merit of Schlegel is as a philosophical critic, and in that department his merits are hardly surpassed. Perhaps nowhere in literature, ancient or modern, is to be found a higher perception of the objects of art, a more generous appreciation of genius, than in his lectures on the drama. English literature has nothing of the same description which can be compared to it. His Esthetics, as the Germans call them, or principles of taste in various branches of art, are models of refined feeling and just criticism, and prove that if he failed in the Philosophy of History, it was not from want of the power of generalisation, but from the difficulty of thought being adequately directed to the affairs of nations under a despotic monarchy. 51. Military historians: the Archduke Charles. It cannot be said that the German military historians have rivalled the transcendant phalanx which the wars of the Revolution have called forth in France, but nevertheless they can boast of some whose merits never were surpassed. At the very head of the array is to be placed the ARCHDUKE CHARLES: the first in rank is also the first in candour, discrimination, and just reflection. His Memoirs of his own immortal campaign in Germany in 1796, and of the still more checkered and heart-stirring one in Italy and the Alps in 1799, are models of lucid and authentic military history, worthy to be placed beside the Commentaries of Cæsar or the Reveries of Marshal Saxe. The principles of strategy on a great scale, to which the greatest successes or reverses in war are to be ascribed, never were more profoundly reflected on or XXVIII. lucidly explained than by this great commander. Like CHAP. the dictator, he discusses his own measures with an impartiality which is, literally speaking, à toute épreuve. To 1800-48. the merits of others, and most of all his opponents, he is ever alive, and yields a willing testimony; he is silent only on the praise due to his own great achievements. In this respect he presents a striking contrast to Napoleon, whose Memoirs, distinguished by greater acuteness and reach of thought, are constantly disfigured by the propensity to magnify self and detract from the merits of others, which, springing from his inveterate selfishness, forms so remark-· able and discreditable a feature in his writings. Above all, the narrative of the Archduke Charles is distinguished by that entire truthfulness, and consequent trustworthiness, which seems an inherent feature in the Teutonic character, and forms so striking a contrast to the mingled genius and falsehood which so often characterise even the greatest men of the Celtic. 52. General CLAUSEWITZ had not the immense advantage enjoyed by Cæsar, Frederick the Great, Napoleon, and Clausewitz. the Archduke Charles, of having himself directed the movements which he described, but he had borne a considerable command in many of the most important of them, and his intuitive military genius enabled him to do the rest. He was born a great general, if he was not made such. Many men are so who never drew a sword. The power of directing or correctly judging of military movements is a gift of nature which may be improved but is not created by practice, and often appears in its highest lustre in those who have had none. Witness Napoleon's skill in tactics as an engineer at the siege of Toulon, where he first saw a gun fired in anger; in strategy, in his first campaign in Italy. Clausewitz's account of the campaigns of 1812 and the three following years are models of clear and accurate military narrative, the study of which is eminently calculated to form great generals. He has not the splendid power of describing XXVIII. CHAP. battles and sieges which we admire in Napier, but neither are his writings overloaded with the flood of insignificant 1800-48. details which in him so much distract the reader's attention. He takes a general view of his campaigns. He narrates them neither as a subordinate actor nor a general-in-chief, but rather as a superior being, who, from an elevated point in the skies, looks down, like the gods in the Iliad, on the contests of men. His coup d'œil is just and rapid-his narrative clear and succinct-his reflections generally just, often profound. They bear a close resemblance to those of the Archduke Charles; and in both we see similar proofs of the candour and equanimity of the German mind in its best mood, when swayed only by reason, and undisturbed by passion. 53. German memoirwriters: Bartholdy Varnhagen and Baron Stein. If the Revolution in France has warmed into life a crowd of memoir-writers, whose effusions throw an invaluable light on the events of that memorable period, the war of liberation in Germany has been hardly less efficavon Ense, cious in calling forth a host of writers, who have portrayed with equal felicity the changes and feelings of that eventful era. Their number is so considerable that a separate criticism on each, in a work of general history, is impossible; but three stand prominently forward, and deserve notice in any account, how brief soever, of German literature. BARTHOLDY'S Krieg der Tyroles presents a graphic and interesting narrative of the memorable struggle of its heroic mountaineers in the year 1809; and VARNHAGEN VON ENSE has collected with much ability, and recorded with dramatic effect, the most striking incidents connected with the war of liberation, and its hero Marshal Blucher. Inferior in graphic power, but much superior in political importance and historical information, the memoirs of BARON STEIN, one of the greatest and most far-seeing of German statesmen, exhibit a most interesting account of the measures which had prepared the triumph of Prussia in that memorable struggle; while the memoir of BARON MUFFLING has furnished a valuable record, from |