XXVIII. CHAP. denouement with surprising skill. A translation of this highly popular novel, if done by kindred genius, would be one of the most popular works of fiction of our times. 1800-48. 60. There is one species of fiction peculiar to Germany and Andersen. the northern nations, which they have cultivated with extraordinary success: this is that of supposing animals, plants, or trees, to be animated with human feeling, and to express their thoughts in human language. ANDERSEN has composed several charming tales of this description, which may be classed with any in the world for interest and simplicity. They have not the deep insight into human nature which distinguishes the somewhat similar fictions of La Fontaine, nor the amusing prattling of Gay; but in variety of fancy, richness of imagery, simplicity of thought, and versatility of imagination, they are unrivalled. Many ideas in them are entirely novel to English readers, and bespeak the chill of the hyperborean regions. The first burst of spring after the long night of an arctic winter, the frozen fields of Lapland, the Snow Queen, the return of the swallows, the migration of the storks, and many similar images, indicate the feelings and ideas awakened by the arctic regions, and have all the attractions, in some degree, of novelty to those dwelling in milder latitudes. His Bilderbuch ohne Bilder is one of the most charming creations of poetic fancy. His idea of the moon recounting all the scenes on which her midnight rays fall in the wide expanse of the globe, in every country and in every clime, is not only highly poetical, but affords the richest field for graphic power and varied imagery. The Hindoo maiden who looks for an omen of the safety of her beloved in the waters of the Ganges, the iceberg of Greenland, the camel-driver shading his face from the burning sands of the Sahara with a bunch of feathers, the tragic scenes of the French Revolution, the horrors of the Moscow retreat, the simple patriarchal life of the Danish isles, the infancy of Thorwaldsen, the last hours of Napoleon, alternately employ his magic pencil, XXVIII. and form, with many others, a series of pictures unrivalled CHAP. in the whole field of German literature for simplicity, variety, and poetic interest. 1800-48. 61. Richter. JEAN PAUL RICHTER has a prodigious reputation in Germany, but it is by no means equally great in foreign Jean Paul countries. The reason is that his language is too homespun; his ideas are too much localised. He has observed and painted and philosophised with great ability within a certain sphere, but his vision has not gone beyond it. Life and manners in a provincial German town, and the caustic observations of a sage upon them, constitute the staple of his productions; and though they are done with sagacious thought and witty satire, and often profound observation, they are not calculated to attract universal notice. They have neither the deep thought of Bacon, nor the admirable wit of Cervantes, nor the sagacious. insight into the heart, of Scott or Bulwer, which have gained for their writings universal fame. But as pictures of a satire upon German life they have very great merit, and have made a valuable addition to European literature. A work of the size of Bacon's Essays, containing a selection of his observations and apothegms, would be of the highest interest, and, like the maxims of Larochefoucauld, acquire a universal reputation. 62. school of It is not to be concluded, from the great number of imaginative writers in Germany, and the large space Philosophic allotted in this sketch to their consideration, that fancy is Germany. the only field of literature which the Teutonic genius has cultivated with success. The German mind, eminently contemplative, has laboured also in the field of philosophy, and the works of their sages are not only noble monuments of thought, highly characteristic of the turn of their minds, but have exercised an important influence on the whole character of their literature, and the destinies of their country. Unlike the French philosophy of the same period, which is entirely founded on selfishness, the German is rested on the generous affections; unlike the XXVIII. 1800-48. CHAP. philosophy of Locke, which refers all our ideas to impressions derived from the senses, it has embraced the doctrines of the idealists, who contend for the existence of innate ideas. When the realists referred to the maxim of the scholiasts, "Nihil est in intellectu quod non ante fuerat in sensu," Leibnitz, the father of the Teutonic philosophy, made the sublime addition, "Nisi intellectus ipse." It is perhaps impossible in this much-vexed question to come nearer the truth than is done in these words. Locke was quite right when he maintained that our information was entirely derived from our senses, and the doctrine of innate ideas seems to have no solid foundation in what we know of human nature. But, on the other hand, it is equally clear that when certain impressions are obtained from the senses, the mind will draw conclusions and form ideas from them altogether foreign to anything derived from the senses; and although it is doubtless true that these ideas could not have been formed but from the materials furnished by the senses, it is not the less true that all the senses in the world could not have furnished the idea but for the self-acting powers of the sentient mind. 63. Kant. KANT is the second father of the modern German philosophy, and he is regarded by a large class of disciples in the Fatherland rather with the veneration with which the disciples of Plato looked up to their preceptor, than with the feelings usual between pupils and their masters in modern society. It cannot be denied that he was in many respects a great man. Born, bred, and living all his life to a very advanced age in Königsberg, he derived scarce anything from the intercourse of society, and found the materials for his world of thought in his own mind, and his own mind alone. But these resources were immense. The sciences, the literature, the languages of the north, were familiar to him; and without seeking to apply these advantages to the acquisition of fame or fortune, he spent his life in solitary reflections XXVIII. 1800-48. on his own thoughts, and the laws by which mind is CHAP. regulated. His great work, the Critick of Pure Reason, which treats of the mind alone, was for nearly twenty years after its publication without readers; but at length some adventurous students had courage to open it, and such a multitude of original and profound ideas were discovered, as speedily led to its being generally studied, and acquiring a colossal fame in Germany. It was succeeded, after a long interval, by a treatise on Practical Reason, and another on Judgment, the first of which treats of the laws of morality, and corresponds to Reid's Active Powers, and the last unfolds the principles of taste and beauty. Without affirming that the solitary meditation of the German sage has in every instance led to the discovery of truth, it may safely be affirmed that they are all of an elevated and ennobling character, equally removed from the selfish egotism of the French encyclopedists, and the dangerous doctrines, tending to materialism, of the English metaphysicians. What is chiefly to be regretted in the writings of Kant is the style, which in general is so involved and obscure as to render his meaning extremely difficult of comprehension even to the Germans themselves, and to a foreigner often unintelligible. This is a fault common to him with most other German metaphysicians, and it is in a great degree to be ascribed to the extraordinary length of their sentences, which often extend over half, sometimes a whole page ;-a strange unaccountable practice, which can never be sufficiently condemned, and should serve as a beacon to all writers in this country. 64. Schelling. FICHTE and SCHELLING have pushed to an extreme the doctrines of Kant, and in some respects brought upon Fichte and them discredit. Reversing the doctrines of the materialists, they make the soul all in all. In this respect their doctrines are akin to those of Bishop Berkeley; and if philosophy is to run into extreme, and discard one or XXVIII. CHAP, other of the great elements of nature, it is better to do so with matter and its attributes than mind and its attri1800-48. butes. It is needless to say, however, that the former speaks in so forcible a manner to the great majority of mankind, that the latter is never likely to find proselytes but among a small band of contemplative philosophers or dreamy enthusiasts. On this account no real danger to the interests of society or public morality is to be apprehended from their lucubrations: but the case is very different with those who represent the soul as consisting of a particular modification of matter, physical enjoyments as the chief end of existence, and the means of their acquisition the only object of a sensible man's pursuit. As these are the maxims to which the great bulk of mankind in every age are in practice inclined, any system of philosophy which gives them the support of principle is dangerous, and if generally received, may prove fatal to the best interests of society. Fichte's doctrines are different in a great measure from those of Schelling, inasmuch as the former rests entirely on the contemplation of the mind, which he regards as necessarily endowed, like the circles or triangles of geometry, with certain fixed qualities, discoverable, like them, by the efforts of philosophy; the latter admits largely the influence of external nature, and deduces most of our ideas from its sensations, and the charm of imagination to which its beauties give rise. In this respect his ideas border on those of the materialists; but yet with this vital difference, that the material world is regarded by him as the appliances which surround and awaken the soul, but not as the soul itself, which alone is immortal, and shall exist after the outer crust shall have melted away. 65. The doctrines of the German idealists bear so close an Frederick affinity to those which, from the dawn of philosophy, have Schlegel. prevailed among the Orientals, and especially the inhabi tants of Hindostan, that it was to be expected that ere long some one would arise who should trace the connec |