Our Public
Libraries
are
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Thomas Carlyle
Chapter I
Introduction. Of Literature, and its Influences. --Literary
Histories: Design of the present jonej. 1
AS, IN THE material things, the seven or ten old Corporate
Trades nowise, in these days, occupy the whole field of indus-
try, but some of our most essential conveniences are now fur-
nished by miscellaneous craftsmen of no guild-privileges what-
ever; so likewise is it in things spiritual: the ancient guildhall
no longer, in either case, represents the collective handicrafts,
but often only a small and half-obsolete part of them. There is a
Church of long standing in most countries; but no Tithes are
anywhere levied, or Convocations held, for behoof of the News-
paper Press; the artists who make Laws for us are an old,
wealthy, well-known Corporation, while again our Songmakers
are poor and without charter, who nevertheless, as we have
heard on good authority, are the more important class of the
two. 2 ,
Literature, the strange, composite set of Agencies which
men designate by that word, has in late times, as we see, ob-
tained a specific name; so that we can now say an Author, as we
say a Carpenter or Smith, and talk of the Literary world, as we
do of the Clerical, Medical, Legal: but this is nearly all the
length we have got. Not for the Writer of Books, whatever it
might do for the Binder of Books, has Government, or Custom,
hitherto passed any enactment, appointed any guidance or fur-
therance, better or worse; not so much as bound him to serve
an apprenticeship. While Theology has its Schools and Cathe-
drals; Law its Inns of Court; Physic its Royal Colleges, and Sa-
lernian Diplomas;3 Mathematics, Chemistry, Mechanics, nay
Farriery itself, their Institutes, their Professors and accredited
Graduates, --Literature has been left to fight or fail for itself;
to spring up spontaneously, in such shape as the transient re-
quisitions of Mode, or the accidental characters of individuals
might direct. The Author takes up his craft, exercises it, finds
payment for it, does incalculable good or incalculable mischief
with it, wheref,] whenf,] and how seems him fit. To the Govern-
ment, one would think, whether he preached forth everlasting
wisdom, and became the benefactor of whole generations, or
spouted the sheerest delirium, it were all one. Only if he chance
to run foul of the Government itself, is an effort made with gags
and curb-bits: for let the Holy of Holies in Man's Mind be faith-
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HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
fully ministered to, or made a den of thieves, the sacred Con-
stable-staff shall not be sniffed at. Nay sometimes, by way of
preventive, the more paternal sort of Governments have insti-
tuted a Censorship for Literature; which however proving rather
to be a thorn in the nose of our Leviathan, 4 than a soft leading-
string and support for him, he has scornfully shaken away. But
let it not be said that Governments are like spring-guns and thief-
takers, motionless so long as mere Good is doing or to do, alert
only when Mischief is astir: have they not, to encourage the true
Literary man, sold him, on cheap terms, a certain right of prop-
erty in his own Thoughts, which he has only created, not manu-
factured; so that for the space of fourteen years long he may even
sell them at what they will bring, and live on the proceeds? 5
The truth is, Literature cannot well be legislated for: except
in some Utopian community, where the Philosophers have become
Kings, 6 or the Kings Philosophers, and the Game Laws are set-
tled on a satisfactory basis, Parliaments have no time for such
deliberations. Still more is, and was always, the insight want-
ing. Literature, like other as momentous results of man's ex-
ertion, took its rise in humble beginnings, scarcely, among the
more stirring concerns of society, arresting the eye even of a
minute observer; but flowing silently, as it were in separate rills,
each indeed with its verdant margin, inviting to the peaceful wan-
derer; yet scanty in water; far apart from one another; and only
in after times, to be united into that mighty river of Thought, of
published Opinion, on which all human interests are now embark-
ed and steered. Nay, even in these days, far from looking for-
ward with prospective contrivance into Literature, how many are
there that can rightly discern so much of it as is before their
eyes? The course and meaning of external things is complex
enough; infinitely more so that of spiritual and invisible things.
News of the famous victory over the French is conveyed by tele-
graph, in a few hours, to all ends of the world; but news of the
much more famous victory over the Powers of Darkness spreads
far slower; perhaps in some half-century, beginning to be faintly
whispered. The Luther, 7 the Hume8 is often overtopped by pig-
mies on high pedestals, his voice is but one sound amid the uni-
versal din; and not till both pigmy and pedestal have melted into
nothingness, does it appear that those others were giants and im-
mortal. Truly we may say, no Parliament, till there be a more
than Radical Reform in it, can legislate for such things. Wa[i]ting
for which happy consummation, literature must even grope its
own way, and perish or prevail in the general chaos, as so much
else has to do.
Nevertheless, in all times, and long before the era of Books,
Literature, what may be called Literature, has had the deepest
influence on the business of the world. For in all times, as in
the present, Conviction is the parent of Action; whether the Law
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? OF LITERATURE
3
be promulgated in thunders from Sinai; or written, as with a
pen of air, silently yet ineffaceably, by man, in the hearts of
men. Thus new Truths may be called the most important of
events; or rather, they are the only important ones. Nay as
separated from the more strictly logical and scientific provinces
of Thought, wherein Philosophy, Polity, Economy, and all man-
ner of didactic and immediately practical speculations hold their
rule, Literature has still a wide empire in man's mind; and if
not the widest, yet the deepest and surest; for its sphere is in
our inmost nature, and embraces the primary fountains whence
Thought and Action take rise. Defined never so narrowly, Liter-
ature includes the whole Kingdom of Poetry, which is indeed the
soul and essence of what in common speech, we specially mean
by that vague term. So that Literature, if it be not Thought, is
the Music of Thought; which indeed does not plead to us by logical
demonstration and computation, yet awakens mysterious and far
more potent impulses than these: the deep tones of Imagination,
the gay melodies of Fancy, which sound or slumber in every bos-
om; and once awakened, lead not to this action or to that, but to
all Action; thenceforward moulding our whole life and mind. We
err much when we suppose that Understanding, the part of our
nature which can be moved by syllogisms, is stronger than Ima-
gination; which last, we may rather say, is as the boundless In-
visible to the small Visible, as the infinite Universe to the little
horizon we command with our eye. 9 It is but a small portion of
any life that is determined by perception of things seen: the dull-
est worlding worships not his golden or clay idols, of guineas or
acres, but a divinity which lies hidden in these; he knows well, his
sleep is not softer, or his fare more savoury, than the poor man's;
only he would have an unseen empire in the hearts of his brethren;
he too is an Idealist, sacrifices Ease to Ambition, the palpable and
calculable to the invisible good. Our very senses, whether for
pleasure or pain, are little more than implements of Imagination.
What are Fear and Hope, mounting to rapture, or sinking to de-
spair, but Pictures which it draws? Nay even for the dullest of
us is not our earthly Life a little Isle of Dreams girdled round by
the infinite Unknown? Is not all vision based on Mystery, all Mat-
ter Spirit^ or something stranger, and our week day business
shadowed over by thoughts that wander thro' Eternity? ^ Fearful,
majestic, unfathomable, in these hearts of ours, is the Witness
and Interpretess of that Unknown! Her minister, the Poet, were
he true to himself and to his art, is still an Orpheus; can bend the
knotted oaks with his lyre! Our whole Life has been shaped and
moulded by him; our thought, our will still hangs on his words:
his domain is all the Infinite in man. 'Who but the Poet, ' cries
one, himself the noblest of living Seers and Singers, 12 'who but
the Poet was it that first formed gods for us; that exalted us to
them, and brought them down to us! '
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HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
Apart from these deeper considerations, it is curious to
observe how universally the Poet still vindicates his sway over
us, how the Pleasures of Imagination are part of the inheritance
of all men. In every man, there lies a mystic universe, which
when the words, 'Let there be light, '13 are spoken, starts into
visibility; and the astonished soul beholds itself in that wide
Wonderland, which thence forward with all its splendour and its
gloom, is to be our own. Who can forget his Fairy Tales, his
Giantkiller, and Fortunatus, and Doctor Faustus, whether learned
from the lips of a garrulous nurse; or purchased, in sackcloth-
and-ashes paper, with the penny saved from sweetmeats ? 14 It
was then for the first time that Mind was found to be higher than
Matter; the Palate compared with the Imagination a barren thing.
And afterwards, when an enlightened skepticism had demolished
those glittering air-castles, and now only Truth and pictures of
Truth were to be our joy, was Imagination, as we fancied, broken
down into a patient house-drudge menial; or still, tho' under more
cunning guise, lord paramount of the inward Kingdom? We again
followed the Ideal, our best wealth was not of this world. Not as
seen with the dim bodily eye, but as mirrored in the magic of
Imagination, had Man and Nature their true meaning for us. Our
first Novel, our Crusoe, our Roderick Random, in which Fiction
wearing a new semblance of Reality, still shadows forth a scene
which is ideal, was again one of the most memorable epochs in
our life. 15 What happens to one has, in this form or the other,
happened to all. There is no nation, raised one grade above the
wild animals, that has not what we may call its Literature: its
Traditions, its Mythologies, its Singers and Narrators. The
Arabs gather round their fire in the desart, and think not of sleep,
while the inward eye is kept so wakeful: in the tale of venturous
love, with its moving accidents by flood and field, all bodily things
are forgotten, and every spirit hangs entranced on the spirit of
the speaker, as if his rudely modulated utterance were music of
the spheres. Nay the Lazzaroni on the quays of Naples, have their
Romancers; and even pay them copyright: often, on bright days,
among these ragged children of nature, appears some ragged ora
tor, or reader, with his time-worn and thumb-worn Tasso, 1? or
his clear, unworn memory and invention; the circle closes round
him; shaggy faces, dark eyes kindle with his story; by word and
gesture they applaud, condemn, pity or triumph; and alas, at
the utmost nodus, that spiritual Magnetiser stops short, and the
copper coins must all be lodged in his hat, before the spell will
proceed. So sweet is the music of Poesy even to the simplest;
so far into the outskirts of existence has Imagination asserted her
sway.
Thus Literature may be called the earliest and the noblest pro-
duct of man's spiritual nature; and at all epochs of his history, is
to be seen spreading out, in flowers and fruits, over the whole field
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? OF LITERATURE
5
of his existence. From the time of the Sibylline Verses to that
of the London Gazettes, the spoken or written Word, under a
thousand different aspects prophetic, poetic, didactic, has ever
been the grand index and agent of our progress; the element in
which Mind lived and moved. Literature unites the Past with
the Present; and the scattered Present into one whole: itself
silent and bodyless, only in the long run a picture of the brain,
it utters and embodies the voices and doings of all generations,
and of separate Men makes Nations and a Mankind.
Still more impressive and universally palpable have been its
influences in later, chiefly in very late times, when being not
only the festive song or worship of the people, but their business
speech also, it has gone forth professedly as the exponent of
their Opinion, and thereby as ultimate regulator of all their in-
terests. Literature is now seen to be not only a moving power
among men, but the most important of all moving powers. In
truth, it is both a new name, and a new form, new mode of oper-
ation, for much that has always been most essential in society.
Literature, that is to say, the empire of the Press, has spread
itself over many ancient provinces whence reverent oracles were
wont to issue for our guidance; and is yet spreading daily, so
that in time all must become tributary to it, or be absorbed in it.
Our sole accredited Teachers, in these days, are Books: it is by
their light, as it reaches us immediately through types, or medi-
ately thro' oral exposition, that in all things we act and walk;
Books are more than Kings to us, they are also prophets and
priests. 17 Independently of Journals and other Political writ-
ings, which in every country where there is a free Press, must
ultimately render Government, be its technical form what it may,
a Democracy, and perhaps the only genuine and possible Demo-
cracy, 18 reducing the duty of the Sovereign to that of a mere Po-
liceman, better or worse paid, more or less kindly dealt with, --
there is no department of our public or private interests over
which Literature does not rule, acknowledged or not, with abso-
lute authority. The ideas of the wisest are now spoken in the
hearing of all; and these, one day, when the ideas of the foolish
are evaporated, must and will become the universal law. Clergy
may preach, and Senators enact: but the true preachers and law-
givers of the community lie in the shelves of Libraries. 19 With
few does religious belief extend much farther than the threshold
of the Church: him who on Sunday listened as an orthodox tithe-
paying Christian to the godlike lesson of Humility, 20 yOU shall
find on Monday with percussion pistols at Chalk Farm. 21 Does
he not believe in the Thirty-Nine Articles ? Faithfully, it may
be; but these are only the patent ladder for mounting into Heaven;
the 'way of the world' points in quite another direction. The
world learns its ways, not from Church Articles and Visitation
Sermons, but in complex action and reaction, on the three thousand
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HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
four hundred gentlemen that write with ease. 22 Let any one try
to compute the influence of the very Minerva Novels! 23 These
washy husks are thrown on the virgin mould of our young and as
yet empty mind, where even the half-dead grain of mustard-seed
will be forced into life, and grow to be a wide-spreading tree.
It is they that teach us our magnanimities, and punctilios, and
senses of honour, and the other meteors and shooting-stars we
steer by: the common Compass-card of Profit and Loss, with
the needle, agitated but constant, ever pointing homeward, com-
pletes, in combination with these, our instruction for the voyage.
How many real flesh-and-blood biographies have those same
pasteboard Cliffords and Adelaides" shaped out and modelled,
whose Moral Philosophy, brought home by example to every bos-
om, lectures to the unfurnished head from all Circulating Libra-
ries, and at second hand wherever two or three are gathered to-
gether! Books are now to us as the lamp of our whole path; and
the most miserable rushlights and falsest will-o'-wisps find some
to lead and mislead.
Of an element so important in man's life as Literature, nay
which is fast becoming all-important, some inspection and des-
criptive survey, could not but seem useful. Accordingly the
smallest insight into so vast a matter, any vestige of order point-
ed out in what, by nature, seems so fortuitous, and miscellane-
ous, and infinitely completted, is and has long been universally
welcome. Witness so many Critics, with their 'Courses of Litera-
ture'; and more lately, the Elegant Extractors, Specimenists, and
the whole mixed multitude of Reviewers, reprospective and cir-
cumspective, innumerable as the sea-sands; so that it might al-
most seem as if the Madrid Glass-manufactory were our pattern,
wherein for eleven workmen there were nineteen clerks. Never-
theless the parallel does not hold; for these clerks, if worth any-
thing, are themselves glass-makers, nay lustre-makers, and
throw out prismatic light on the whole shop. Of the many that
work in green glass, and throw out nothing but a pallid darkness-
visible, let no mention be made here. --
Above all, any History of a National Literature, could it be
accomplished according to the ideal of such a work, might prove
the most instructive of all the Histories. History is written that
we may understand how men, in time past, have lived and had
their being; what they have done, and, which is still more im-
portant, what they have been. Now a national Literature, so far
as it can deserve that name, is not only the noblest achievement
of the nation, but also the most characteristic; the truest emblem
of the national spirit and manner of existence; out of which, in-
deed, it directly springs, as a purified essence, and disembodied
celestial, [sicjlikeness, and into which again, in strong influences,
it continually descends. 25 Nowhere does the mind and life of a
nation, in all its specialties, and deep-laid yet light and almost
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? OF LITERATURE
7
evanescencent fsicl individualities, so faithfully shadow itself,
as in the mirror of its Art and Literature; in which two, or in
rather which last, for it virtually includes the former, lies the
only complete record both of What it has felt and thought, and
of How it has felt and thought. These charmed words of the
Poet are as windows into his own inmost soul, and into those
others that loved and encouraged him in his art. Whereas the
movements of the Statesman or Captain, tho' whole kingdoms
hung thereon, are at best out-of-doors transactions; between us
and their real origin and meaning, stand always dark walls, im-
penetrable except to our surmises. The Historian who should
picture for us, in any measure, the true significance of a national
Literature, would bring the essential life of the nation far nearer
us than he who treated merely of its material operations whether
in War or Industry, nay even of its Laws and Polity. Or rather,
let us say, each of these aspects, well illustrated, would add
clearness to the other; and so, comparing Word with Act, a much
truer insight into the whole living phenomenon might be obtained.
Still more profitable for such insight would a Series of Liter-
ary Histories be, wherein all nations were brought into view of
one another, and the united light of a Whole, more and more per-
fectly evolving itself in that survey, should be made to illustrate
each of the Parts. For the rest, the manifold uses of such na-
tional intercourse, and mutual understanding, are palpable enough.
This closer acquaintanceship among nations, this new curiosity
we are all manifesting towards our neighbours, especially the ef-
fort everywhere making to gain some knowledge of their Literature,
is justly reckoned among the most cheering signs of the times.
Directly in face of that poor calumny on human nature that those
we know least are often best esteemed, it may be asserted that
among nations, as among individuals, Knowledge, provided it be
genuine, is the sure parent of Affection; that to no man, not to the
meanest and worst, did we thoroughly penetrate his secret heart,
and survey from his point of view the strange chaotic quarry of
Difficulties and Possibilities, among which he lives, and where-
from he, even he, has built up or begun a little edifice of Freewill,
and Moral Good, should we refuse some pity, some approval and
Love. This freer intercourse, and reciprocal familiarity among
nations, whom Commerce indeed brings together, but only Litera-
ture can cause [to] speak together, and understand each other, is
already widening our horizon, and adding in many ways to our in-
tellectual gratification and resources: but its effects one day may
be much more momentous than these. What is it, for example,
but strangeness to each other, but ignorance of each other, that
influences national hatreds, aggravates all casual misunderstand-
ings into fierce discord, and makes the bloody delirium of War
almost perpetual in this Earth? Let nations begin to know each
other, and they will begin to love each other; for virtues are in
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HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
each, otherwise it were not there;26 and man is drawn by invisible
links towards all worth in man. Surely the time will come when
nations instead of regarding themselves as natural enemies, will
find that they are natural friends; when it will be discovered that
we are all brothers and fellow-soldiers engaged, as our fathers
have been and as our sons will be, in one mighty ever-enduring
warfare against Necessity and Evil, and that all other war is but
madness and wicked mutiny. Or if this time can never arrive,
the nearer and nearer approximation of it may be longed for;
wherein if madness must visit certain of us, it may be known
for madness, and by interposition of the sane, be softened in
its paroxysms, and the sooner put an end to.
Such fruits, even in a political respect, are to be anticipated
from the general cultivation of foreign Literature, from the free
interchange of Thought between nation and nation; and this the
more surely and speedily, as the influence falls first and strong-
est on the learned classes, who by their writings are guides of
the unlearned. What still higher benefits, in a moral and spirit-
ual point of view, might follow, were the Literature of all coun-
tries harmonized, in thinking minds, into one World-Literature;27
wherein all that was accidental, transient, local should fall away;
and only the necessary, universal and perennial remaining, the
entire Truth, now so disjointed and discoloured, of man's past
Existence and Endeavour should unite itself into one magnificent
Whole, accessible to all, and thenceforward to be consciously
cooperated in by all: this is a cheering consideration in part open
to every one, yet stretching into long dim vistas, which the wisest
cannot discriminate into form, yet look upon with wonder and hope.
Literature is now not only our grand Arsenal and Storehouse,
wherein all that Time has done for us is to [be] preserved and turned
to use; but it is becoming also, what is infinitely more, our grand
Metropolitan Temple, where, if anywhere, all men are to meet
and worship. 28 To the perfection and purifying of Literature, of
Poetry, [of]Art, all eyes are turned; for in these times the deepest
interests of man seem to be involved in it; the ashes and fast-
burning fragments of the whole Past lie there, from which, amid
clouds and whirlwinds, The Phoenix Future^9 is struggling to un-
fold itself.
The Historian of a National Literature, could he ever hope to
embrace the whole meaning of his subject, would have two things
to do. First, to decipher and pourtray the spiritual form of the
nation at each successive period; how the Universe and man's Life
painted itself to their minds; and with what means, purposes, suc-
cess, they endeavoured, in gayety or earnestness, to copy and out-
wardly represent this picture. Secondly, we could wish him to
show us in what combination of external or internal circumstances,
this particular form of mind originated; not only that such and such
was the spiritual aspect of affairs, but how it came to be so. The
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? OF LITERATURE 9
whole secret of that Literature were thus laid open to us; and
many secrets besides; for we should now see clearly into the
hidden inward structure of that nation, and wherein its social
Life specially consisted; whatsoever nobleness and good it had
realized we might, in the highest conceivable degree, compre-
hend and appropriate.
Literary Historians have nowise lost sight of these severe
conditions they work under, nay rather that second and far hard-
er condition has stood too fixedly before them. Descanting, with
or without examination, with or without descriptive gift, on the
external characters of a Literature, they have seldom neglected
to look out, diligently enough, for the inward sequences and mov-
ing causes; being proud to make their History too, what general
History has long boasted of being, Philosophy teaching by Ex-
perience. 30 On the whole, that tendency we have to theorize on
all things, to 'account' for all things, is but our natural love of
order, put in action; and blameless, praiseworthy, so it over-
step not the limits. Nothing can be more natural than for a man
to build himself some small theoretical Observatory, whence he
may look around upon the world a little; only let him not try to
reach the Heavens with it, otherwise it proves a Tower of Babel,
and ends in confusion of tongues. The Stars are seen more clear-
ly from some stations than from others; but they are not to be
handled and dipt in pieces from any. Literature, Poetry, the
Sphere-music of man's soul, is one of those divine things, which,
it is to be feared, no Science, with its school-gamut, will ever
give us mastery over. Meanwhile we have theories enough where-
in the whole course and mechanism of Poetry is explained; how
it rises, prospers, declines, and even finally terminates, for
except perhaps Cookery, there seems to be no deathless art in
this world. Various are the genetical schemes of such philoso-
phers: sometimes, for instance, Poetry is found to depend on
National Wealth; as if the Greeks in the age of Homer had been
richer than in that of Alexander, the ancient Hebrew Prophets
than the modern Hebrew Goldschmids and Rothschilds. Then
again comes a Denina31 with his Political Freedom; all depends
on Freedom, on a popular constitution: forgetting the eras of
Pericles, Augustus, Leo, Philip Second; and the inconsiderable
Literature of Sparta and the Four Forest Cantons. Freedom
truly it is that makes Poets, that would make us all Poets, in
word or, still better, in deed; but Freedom of an infinitely more
surprising sort than that of the elective franchises; such Free-
dom as an Epictetus, 32 under slave fetters, may plentifully pos-
sess, and the boldest voter in Westminster, tho' the very rivers
ran ale, may altogether want. Which latter Freedom he were a
cunning man that could show us how to come at. But perhaps the
daintiest of all theories is that which makes poetry mount and
sink inversely, balance-wise, with the culture of Language. 33
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? 10 HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
A half savage language, so it be vague and passionate enough,
gives rise to Poetry; a logical, definite, transparent language
extinguishes it: so that till some sort of Sicilian-vespers be en-
acted on the whole breed of Grammarians, there is henceforth
no prospect of a Poet. We had always understood that Swift was
mistaken when he ascribed to Tailors a creative virtue: 34 here,
however, if there be truth in similitudes, it is not the man that
produces his coat, but the coat that produces its man.
Thus does Philosophy overshoot itself: in stretching our log-
ical faculty to impossible lengths, we pervert and neglect the
province that really lies under its dominion. To the Political
Historian himself, many things, or rather, if he well consider
it, all things, stand rooted in mystery; show only faint super-
ficial glimmerings of their meaning, and remain at bottom in-
finitely-complected, indescribable, unknowable. Much more
so to the Historian of Literature, whose subject of itself leads
him into invisible regions; where not the origin only but even the
result is mysterious. The truth is, those Cause-and-effect
Philosophers, who for every Why are so ready with their Where-
fore, and can spin the whole chaos of human things into a single
thread, or bead-string, are no trustworthy guides. For all man-
ner of Historians, it were more advisable to narrow their enter-
prize within moderate limits: to look upon themselves as witness-
es set there to report and intelligibly represent the things visi-
ble, as they successively or simultaneously emerge; but for the
primary causes and grand moving agencies, to consider these as
a mighty sea, some of whose tides and surface currents it were
indeed blindness not to note; but whose interior secrets, in their
bottomless depths, defy all sounding. 35
It will be understood that in this little undertaking of ours,
which we have named History of German Literature, a far hum-
bler model lies before us. No complete, continuous delineation,
still less any scientific scheme and theory, of the collective
Thought and Culture of the Germans; but only some Series of
light, far-off Historical Sketches relating thereto, can be looked
for here. 36 Nay, were there no other hindrance, the position
of our readers in regard to this matter is not such as to warrant
any deeper attempt. For us English, the Literature of Germany
is almost an untouched subject, whose existence alone has been
made apparent; in respect of which, as yet no curiosity, beyond
that of the lower and primary sort, presses for satisfaction.
How speak with elaborate precision, and in the style (? ] of philo-
sophic deduction, about an object, the whole nature of which is
to most of our hearers unknown? Neither, for the English writer,
even tho' this were all otherwise, are the helps he can find in
English Libraries, or from English discussion whether printed
or spoken, sufficient for great efforts.
Our Public Libraries are
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? OF LITERATURE
11
poor in German Books; or rather, with scarcely more than one
exception, 37 altogether destitute of such. Personal communi-
cation, again, even with the learned and intelligent, touching
this subject, will oftener yield darkness than light. As matters
stand, the English inquirer into German Literature is yet rather
a pioneer than a free traveller and observer: on all sides he is
beset with obscurities and complexities, for which, except in his
own resources, such as they may be, there is no aid or outlet.
Meanwhile, German Literature, like a world formed under
Darkness, has suddenly torn asunder its concealments, and now
stands before all nations, the more wondrous that it was unlooked
for, inviting and demanding inquiry. Probably there is not now
any thinking man in England, or in Europe, to whom insight into
the spiritual condition of the Germans were indifferent. Among
ourselves, in particular, the fat contented ignorance only yester-
day so universal on that subject, has abated, and is abating, with
strange rapidity: at the very least, those melancholy maunderings
from our Critical spokesmen, who now see themselves reduced
to one of two extremities, either to acquire some perceptible
knowledge of the matter, or altogether to hold their peace touch-
ing it,--may be considered as finished, probably forever. On
all hands it begins to be understood that the Germans as a Liter-
ary nation stand on a deep and quite independent basis; that their
Literature, alone of all existing Literatures, has still some claim
to that ancient 'inspired gift,' which alone is Poetry; that it is not
only a clear melodious Echo of the present Time, but also a Pro-
phecy of a new and better Time, traces and incipient forms of
which already lie revealed there. 38
So general is public Curiosity on this head; combined too with
a state of Knowledge, such that even the smallest accession is
felt and welcome. Doubtless, in any Historical Survey of German
Literature, with its singular products, and the singular circum-
stances of their production, many pleasant views are discover-
able, and some useful insight may be communicated even by a
stranger and for strangers. One thing it clearly enough lies in
his power to do: to report what he has himself seen and known;
well distinguishing it from what he has only heard of or half
known; whereby if our map of intellectual Germany have but few
cities on it accurately determined, the vacant spaces may be left
honestly vacant, not filled up by Anthropophagi and Mountains of
the Moon. All aspects of our subject, all methods of represent-
ing these, whatsoever can seem interesting to English readers
as they now are, be it Biographical or Critical, National or Uni-
versal, characteristic of Literary men or of Literary things, we
shall hold to lie open for us: where there is little that promises
to interest such readers, we need not linger, need not even pause.
Could these local glances into the field of German Literature be
faithfully delineated, the stations they are taken from being first
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? 12
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
well chosen, some outline of that vast, many-sided phenomenon
might grow therefrom, and help to forward and direct the study
of it; preparing us afar off for that clear History, and Philosoph-
ic picture and Estimate, which must one day, whether as separ-
ate book, or as existing at large in the minds of thinking men,
be formed among us; in which History and Estimate, all such be-
ginnings and approximations as the present might be happily ab-
sorbed and forgotten.
On one other point it is fit that the reader and I should have
some understanding, if such do not already exist between us:
What we are specially to understand by the term German Liter-
ature; from what classes of intellectual objects are we entitled
to select those delineations of ours; what classes are they that
may without blame be omitted? To define that vague word Lit-
erature, as here used, might be difficult; neither perhaps is it
very necessary. In its primitive sense, which it still partially
retains, the Literature of any country means the sum-total of
the printed Books in that country. In more strict language, es-
pecially now that Books have so multiplied on us, all manner
of Sciences, and scientific Speculations, Philosophy, Theology,
and so forth, are struck off from our idea of Literature; and
there remains that large, not easily definable body of writings
which, without technical apparatus, address themselves direct-
ly to the whole people. Yet neither is this all Literature: Cob-
bett's Cottage Economy39 is not a Literary work. Perhaps, as
hinted above, we might say that the essential character, as it
were, the inmost nucleus of Literature is Poetry; that whatever
had not in it some emanation of Poetry, whatever did not in some
sort address itself both to all men and to the whole man, to his
affections as well as to his intellect, were no longer Literature. 40
But here again, especially in countries where from eight to
ten thousand imaginative persons are all busy addressing both
the intellect and affections of whosoever will buy their books,
some further distinction becomes necessary; and the question
returns on us: What is Literature, what is mere printed Talk?
Fichte has defined the Literary man to be him only who possess-
es, or with his whole heart strives after, the 'Divine Idea of the
World, '41 what Word sworth in his own dialect has called 'the
Vision and the Faculty divine';42 in which definition, it is mourn-
ful to think how many myriads of amiable gild-brethren sink into
endless sleep.
Happily that task of defining, in this instance, falls rather on
the Logician, or Grammarian than on the Historian, For prac-
tical purposes, we already well nigh understand what is Literature
and what is No-literature, as the cases come before us. At all
events, throughout the greater part of our present course, Time
has already applied his test for us; what was not Literary has per-
ished; nothing that has not some degree of perennial intrinsic worth
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? OF LITERATURE
13
by whatever name we may call it, will be permanently remem-
bered. 43 Nay in its very antiquity there lies a claim to our re-
gard: were it even worthless and nowise Literary, yet as having
once been popular and reckoned literary, it deserves remem-
brance .
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? Chapter II
[Antiquity and Integrity of the German People. German Nation-
al Characteristics. The Northern Immigrations and Their Im-
portance in World History. The Greatness of the Present Ger-
man Culture. ] 44
IF ANTIQUITY and unmixed descent be an honour among na-
tions, the German people, in that respect, may boast itself su-
perior to all its neighbours. We other European nations are but
of yesterday, the oldest of us scarcely counting ten centuries;
for our fathers were wafted together by all the four winds; and
blending in a fierce war-embrace, have left us a most composite
existence; so that in blood, habits, language, we are kinsmen
of all the world. Of the three grand elements, the Celtic, Ro-
man and Gothic or Teutonic, from which our modern European
population springs, the two former are now nearly obliterated
as distinct existences: the Romans long since fused away into
the general mass; the Celts languishing, in thinner and thinner
remnants, here and there, along the rocky coast; waiting as it
were till Time consume them also, and Brittany and Albyn be
as Cornwall: only the Teutschen, as true modern Teutones,
still dwell on their own soil, speaking their own tongue;45 a power-
ful nation in the heart of new Europe, and looking back for their
original to the migrations of Odin, and high fabulous times when
great captains and conquerors were also gods.
What degree of advantage there may be in this; nay whether,
quite contrariwise, a later origin, inferring numerous and even
violent intermixtures, is not the best, we shall not minutely in-
quire here. At all events, the old Athenian boast of Autochthon-
ism were but a vain one in these times: for, be our birth what it
may, there is nod] neither can there be[,J any such thing as inde-
pendent, self-regulated growth and culture for a nation; least of
all, in this ever-fluctuating, all-combining, all-dividing Europe,
where, at this day, to say nothing of our Eastern Coffees and
Cottons, such has been our frank intercourse and brotherhood,
we write with Italian, perhaps Phoenician Letters, compute with
Arabic or Hindoo Numerals, worship with Hebrew Books. Never-
theless Coherence, Perseverance is the first condition of all at-
tainment; and not less of inward than of outward attainment, of
moral depth and greatness, than of physical power. A nation that
has no treasure in the Past cannot be wealthy, save perhaps in
money, which for nations as for individuals is the plainest, but
the most transient and intrinsically the poorest sort of wealth.
Sismondi's Nation of Steam-engines46 could manufacture marki \-
goods; nay perhaps by its superior steadiness in work, and che; >er
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? THE GERMAN PEOPLE
15
method of subsistence (on coals) might undersell the others,
and become the richest: but only a nation of Men can produce
Tells and Luthers, Iliads*? and Hamlets, 48 Bibles and Divini-
ties. Not what we have; in a far higher degree, what we are is
the measure of our value. A national character, which is for a
nation what established principles and a given way of thought are
for a man, cannot grow up except in Time; and the older it is,
the more fixed will it be, and generally the better perfected, and
in its kind the worthier.
That the Germans have endured so long as a separate people,
is itself proof or presumption that their national character must
have some depth; that, at all events, it must ere now be well con-
firmed, and have in all ways clearly expressed itself. The vul-
gar persuasions, current here and elsewhere on this head, might
indeed teach us quite the contrary; but these verdicts, grounded
for most part on mere ophthalmic illusions, will not mislead us.
It is with nations as with men: the deepest excellence is nowise
the soonest recognised; only of physical strength and the talent
for dancing can all eyes judge. Thus, many times, metaphori-
cally as well as literally, honest Worth is left starving on the
street, while forward Dexterity, wheedling and smirking its way,
sits warm and fares sumptuously within. To that immortal ques-
tion, Si un Allemand peut avoir de l'esprit? 49 the Germans might
have answered: We have our Keplers, 50 and Luthers, and Fausts, 51
and the daily life of all men is rich with their inventions; mais
vous, Gualches, 52 qu'avez vous invents?
The political condition and constitution of the Germans, with
its wild discords, and loose unwieldy combination, had often been
little favourable for the free development of a national character:
nevertheless there is much visible among them, even in the worst
periods, to win our regard; if their character want something in
practical adroitness, it has a force, sincerity, and earnest noble-
ness, which is of far rarer value. Already in Tacitus' time, we
discern, in those German manners, features of a rude greatness;
in their dark Forests already dwelt the future regenerators of
Europe, under whom the old corrupt world was to be swept away
as an abomination, and a new world under fairer omens for man-
kind to evolve itself. The first characteristic of those ancient
Germans in the philosophic picture of Tacitus, is their Bravery:53
they are a nation of armed men, and pass their lives amid peril
and adventure, in constant daring and endurance. Their very name,
Guerre-mans, is Wehr-manner, or War-men. * This is not that
* This is Friedrich Schlegel's etymology (Vorlesungen iiber
die Geschichte, V. I), 54 and seems authentic enough. It may
be remarked, at the same time, that the Germans have borne
and still bear a rather curious variety of designations. The
word Germans, or Guerre-mans (Scottice, also we might say
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? 16
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
light reckless contempt of death, which could be no distinction
for the Germans, in as much as all men, and most animals,
are capable of it; but a real, far deeper-rooted strength of
heart; stout, unflinching, ever-fresh Endeavour; familiarity
with Danger and Evil, and faith in their power to conquer these.
This same 'deliberate valour' (Tapferkeit) shines forth in their
whole prior and subsequent history: in the wild predatory voy-
ages of the Franks and Saxons, defying all seas and enemies
with their steel 'Knives, ' and frail leathern craft, 'whom, ' says
Sidonius Apollinaris, 56 'Shipwreck only incites, not frightens';
in the stubborn daring of many a Hermann and Civilis; in our
Garr-men) is altogether unknown in their own country; ap-
pears, indeed, to have been nothing more than the assumed
title of those Adventurers, who before Tacitus* or Caesar's
day, had crossed to the left bank of the Rhine, for the pur-
pose of spoiling the Gauls, and settling J? ) in their territory,
and might well call themselves War-men, since except war,
they had no trade there. For the Romans, to whom this was
the vanguard, and first sample, of these unknown hosts, the
casual title of a few became a name for the whole. By them-
selves, however, the Germans have been and still are named
Teutschen, or rather Deutschen; which last, or the equivalent
to it, we English, singularly enough, restrict to the Hollanders,
who have nowise the best right to it. By the French again they
are called Allemands, which also is a Roman designation (Ale-
manni from the native Alle-mSnner); originating in a similar
principle with the name Guerre-mans, and scarcely less sig-
nificant than this; meaning All-men. The Italian Tudeschi is
the only foreign name bearing even a faint resemblance to
their own; which courtesy, it might seem, the Germans have
but ill repaid; calling their southern neighbours, not Italians,
but Walschen, Welsh. -- But, on the whole, names do but sow
themselves 'in the drift-mould of Accident, ' and like many
other earthly things offer strange anomalies. Why, for ex-
ample, is our own country called Angle-land, and not as well
Jut-land, or still better Saxon-land ? The Buccaneers took
name from their hung-beef, or Boucan; which even in that hot
climate they were often glad to live on. Our stout ancestors,
the Saxons, it seems to be agreed on, are so called from the
word Sachs, which in the vulgar dialect of that region is said
to signify or have signified, Knife: Nennius (Historia Britonum)
states as a thing known to him that Hengist was wont to address
his men with a: Nimed eure Sahen (Nimmt eure Sachsen, Take
your Knives! )--which emphatic word-of-command, if genuine,
is doubtless the oldest in modern drilling. See Leibnitz; or
rather Mascov (History of the Germans, Vol. I, p. 242, of the
English Translation), from whom I derive this anecdote. 55
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? THE GERMAN PEOPLE
17
own Hengists and Alfreds; nay, it is still claimed by their great-
est Poet and Thinker, * as the basis of their present national
character.
Akin to this, or rather indeed its origin and root, is the
deep meditative temper, full of enthusiasm and affection, which
those same ancient Germans, and their modern descendants,
likewise exhibit. The Germans of Tacitus are a religious people;
nor is their Superstition a coarse materialism, like that of the
Greeks and Romans; but already an almost intellectual Belief,
stern, majestic, and of infinite melancholy. Their deity is Her-
tha, the Earth or World, the stupendous All;58 whom they wor-
ship without images, solely by the inward sense, not in temples,
but in deep groves, under their sacred Oaks, t no roof over them
but the blue Immensity. Their rites are not always bloodless,
yet not without a grandeur even in their cruelty. 'In an Island
of the Ocean, ' says Tacitus, 'there is a holy Grove; and within
this a consecrated Chariot covered with a cloth, which only one
priest is allowed to touch. In this shrine where he believes the
Goddess to be present, heifers are yoked to her chariot, and he
reverently follows it. Glad are the days, and festive the places,
wherever she deigns to tarry and be worshipped. No wars are
undertaken, no arms worn, all iron is shut up:^0 peace and re-
pose, strangers at other times, are now alone loved; till the
same priest, his Goddess having had enough of this society with
mortals, restores her to the temple; when the chariot and the
cloth, and if you may believe it, the Deity herself, is washed in
a secret Pool. Slaves do this office, whom straightway the same
Pool engulphs. Hence mysterious terror, and a sacred ignorance
what that may be which only those on the brink of death behold. '61
Nor are the kindly affections unknown to these rude bosoms:
the warriors, tho' they kill their slaves in fits of passion, do not
maltreat them in cold blood: the virtues of Hospitality they prac-
tice with more than uncivilized alacrity; no human guest is turn-
ed away; he that has not entertainment of his own to offer, ac-
companies the stranger to a neighbour's house, and is there wel-
* Goethe, in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, C. [16] B. [IV]57
t Long afterwards, one of the first proceedings of the Christ-
ian missionaries seems to have been to cut down these Oaks,
under the shadow of which the Germans not only worshipped,
says Mascov, 'but held their conventions and courts of judi-
cature. Such was the famous Oak near Geismar, in lower
Hessia, which was dedicated to the God of Thunder': our
English Boniface, backed by Government authority, cut down
this Thunder-Oak (about the year 850), 'to the great terror
of the people, ' whom however nothing special overtook. Long
Dissertations have been written on this Oak, --which from its
many acorns may have grandsons, or even sons, about Geis-
mar to this day. --Mascov. II. 293. 59
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? 18
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
corned along with him. But what most distinguished them from
all other unpolished tribes, ancient or modern, is their treat-
ment of their women. That the stronger should yield to the
weaker, should do homage to her as to a finer, higher nature,
is no dictate of rude instinct; but the late result of moral con-
templation, almost of religion. The old-Germans show a noble
devotion to their women; the ground-plan of a whole future Chiv-
alry lies traced here. 62 They think that there is in females 'a
certain divineness'; these have authority in their counsels; they
are their prophetesses and guardian genii; and are looked upon
with a heartfelt respect, for which the hollow ceremonies of
modern gallantry, whereby the woman, idolized with a certain
mouth-worship, is intrinsically degraded into a beautiful, un-
reasonable plaything, are but a poor substitute. Nor are the
Old-German wives unworthy of this honour; for indeed, giving
honour is often, in such cases, an assurance that it will be de-
served; as popular prophecy brings about its own fulfilment.
The utmost purity of conjugal morals prevails; but these women
are brave, helpful, high-minded, as well as chaste. They ac-
company their husbands in war; fearlessly tend their wounds;
encourage them in the fight; and die with them if all is lost.
How that picture of the Cimbric Mother, whom, in the universal
rout and carnage, Marius' soldiers 'found hanging from the pole
of the waggon, with her children suspended by her feet, "* still
lives in our imagination, after eighteen hundred years;--one
stern Tear, not yet dried away, of the bitter many that have
flowed from broken hearts, and been forgotten! Often, says
Tacitus, the fortune of battles has been turned by the sudden
presence of the women. 64 in that revolt of Civilis, we find a
Velleda from amid her groves on the Lippe, animating and di-
recting the whole heroic enterprises. The spoils of victory are
sent to her: 'but to see or to address the Prophetess herself is
not permitted. She sits apart in a lofty tower; certain of her
relatives chosen for that purpose, like messengers of a divinity,
present the question and bring back the response. '! She is a
Poetess as well as Prophetess and Counsellor, an antique Makarie,
such as Goethe has in these days delineated;66 outwardly fragile
as a reed, yet by her inward clearness, her inward depth, lead-
ing at will the wild strength of men.
The very vices of the Germans do not belie this character,
but rather naturally grow out of it, in such a state of culture as
theirs. These are not indolence and cruelty, passive and active
love of selfish Ease, the common vices of barbarians; but rather
an inordinate passion for social excitement; fierce gambling, and
* Plutarch, in Marius. 63
t Tacitus. Hist. L. IV: C. 67. 65
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? THE GERMAN PEOPLE
19
that excess, which in tavern language is still said to be 'the
feast of souls, ' but in the vulgar dialect is called Drunken-
ness. * Their amusements, which are war-dances and the like;
still more their domestic customs, in regard to childhood, to
majority, to marriage, and the other grand epochs of life; above
all, that rigorous love of Justice, and deep, steadfast, untame-
able spirit of Freedom, which is based thereon are features of
an earnest, high-minded, heroic, people, worthy of the great
work they were one day to perform.
Neither was there wanting, in those early times, a certain
semblance of Literature; if what was not committed to writing,
there being yet no Letters, can deserve that name. A vast
Northern Mythology, full of gloomy grandeur; connecting itself
with the primeval Science and Philosophy of the East;68 yet in-
dependent in structure, and a type of the Northern mind, has
descended, we may say, even to these days: thro' oblique chan-
nels, indeed, and greatly perverted; yet in its groundwork an-
tique, and the property of the whole Northern nations. Wondrous
glimpses into the old and oldest Time, faint dubious light waver-
ing as thro' a submerged City of the Dead, we still have, in those
Eddas and Sagas. What part of all this is due to the more modern
Skalds of Iceland, what to the ancient common stock, it is now
impossible to determine. If Letters are like an imperishable
engraving, Tradition is but an air-image, varying with every
variation in the cloud that reflects it.
But however this may be, we find in Tacitus' description, 69
the Barditus expressly set forth an important element of German
Life. The Bards, chaunting in fierce enthusiasm the exploits of
their heroes, are listened to on all festal occasions; they precede
armies to battle; inspiring them to high daring; they are at once
the Historians, the Singers, and public Preachers of the country.
Their songs of Arminius were in the mouth of the people, when
Tacitus wrote; nay as antiquarians would fondly persuade us
some tone of them still lingers there. Who would not prize any
the faintest tradition or memorial that could be referred with
even a shadow of certainty to this noble Hermann, whom tho' a
Barbarian, his proud enemies themselves thought worthy to be
ranked with their greatest heroes ! But unfortunately, if that
shadow of certainty be an essential, we must forbear such plea-
sure . t
* To certain of my readers it will be interesting to know that
our national English liquor, Ale (now brewed in Australia, and
the remotest west! ) was already the solace of these ancients.
'The liquid they drink, ' says Tacitus, 'is a preparation from
barley or corn, corrupted (corruptus) into a certain resem-
blance of wine. '67
t 'It is highly probable, ' says Mascov, 'that the famous
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Introduction. Of Literature, and its Influences. --Literary
Histories: Design of the present jonej. 1
AS, IN THE material things, the seven or ten old Corporate
Trades nowise, in these days, occupy the whole field of indus-
try, but some of our most essential conveniences are now fur-
nished by miscellaneous craftsmen of no guild-privileges what-
ever; so likewise is it in things spiritual: the ancient guildhall
no longer, in either case, represents the collective handicrafts,
but often only a small and half-obsolete part of them. There is a
Church of long standing in most countries; but no Tithes are
anywhere levied, or Convocations held, for behoof of the News-
paper Press; the artists who make Laws for us are an old,
wealthy, well-known Corporation, while again our Songmakers
are poor and without charter, who nevertheless, as we have
heard on good authority, are the more important class of the
two. 2 ,
Literature, the strange, composite set of Agencies which
men designate by that word, has in late times, as we see, ob-
tained a specific name; so that we can now say an Author, as we
say a Carpenter or Smith, and talk of the Literary world, as we
do of the Clerical, Medical, Legal: but this is nearly all the
length we have got. Not for the Writer of Books, whatever it
might do for the Binder of Books, has Government, or Custom,
hitherto passed any enactment, appointed any guidance or fur-
therance, better or worse; not so much as bound him to serve
an apprenticeship. While Theology has its Schools and Cathe-
drals; Law its Inns of Court; Physic its Royal Colleges, and Sa-
lernian Diplomas;3 Mathematics, Chemistry, Mechanics, nay
Farriery itself, their Institutes, their Professors and accredited
Graduates, --Literature has been left to fight or fail for itself;
to spring up spontaneously, in such shape as the transient re-
quisitions of Mode, or the accidental characters of individuals
might direct. The Author takes up his craft, exercises it, finds
payment for it, does incalculable good or incalculable mischief
with it, wheref,] whenf,] and how seems him fit. To the Govern-
ment, one would think, whether he preached forth everlasting
wisdom, and became the benefactor of whole generations, or
spouted the sheerest delirium, it were all one. Only if he chance
to run foul of the Government itself, is an effort made with gags
and curb-bits: for let the Holy of Holies in Man's Mind be faith-
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? 2
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
fully ministered to, or made a den of thieves, the sacred Con-
stable-staff shall not be sniffed at. Nay sometimes, by way of
preventive, the more paternal sort of Governments have insti-
tuted a Censorship for Literature; which however proving rather
to be a thorn in the nose of our Leviathan, 4 than a soft leading-
string and support for him, he has scornfully shaken away. But
let it not be said that Governments are like spring-guns and thief-
takers, motionless so long as mere Good is doing or to do, alert
only when Mischief is astir: have they not, to encourage the true
Literary man, sold him, on cheap terms, a certain right of prop-
erty in his own Thoughts, which he has only created, not manu-
factured; so that for the space of fourteen years long he may even
sell them at what they will bring, and live on the proceeds? 5
The truth is, Literature cannot well be legislated for: except
in some Utopian community, where the Philosophers have become
Kings, 6 or the Kings Philosophers, and the Game Laws are set-
tled on a satisfactory basis, Parliaments have no time for such
deliberations. Still more is, and was always, the insight want-
ing. Literature, like other as momentous results of man's ex-
ertion, took its rise in humble beginnings, scarcely, among the
more stirring concerns of society, arresting the eye even of a
minute observer; but flowing silently, as it were in separate rills,
each indeed with its verdant margin, inviting to the peaceful wan-
derer; yet scanty in water; far apart from one another; and only
in after times, to be united into that mighty river of Thought, of
published Opinion, on which all human interests are now embark-
ed and steered. Nay, even in these days, far from looking for-
ward with prospective contrivance into Literature, how many are
there that can rightly discern so much of it as is before their
eyes? The course and meaning of external things is complex
enough; infinitely more so that of spiritual and invisible things.
News of the famous victory over the French is conveyed by tele-
graph, in a few hours, to all ends of the world; but news of the
much more famous victory over the Powers of Darkness spreads
far slower; perhaps in some half-century, beginning to be faintly
whispered. The Luther, 7 the Hume8 is often overtopped by pig-
mies on high pedestals, his voice is but one sound amid the uni-
versal din; and not till both pigmy and pedestal have melted into
nothingness, does it appear that those others were giants and im-
mortal. Truly we may say, no Parliament, till there be a more
than Radical Reform in it, can legislate for such things. Wa[i]ting
for which happy consummation, literature must even grope its
own way, and perish or prevail in the general chaos, as so much
else has to do.
Nevertheless, in all times, and long before the era of Books,
Literature, what may be called Literature, has had the deepest
influence on the business of the world. For in all times, as in
the present, Conviction is the parent of Action; whether the Law
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? OF LITERATURE
3
be promulgated in thunders from Sinai; or written, as with a
pen of air, silently yet ineffaceably, by man, in the hearts of
men. Thus new Truths may be called the most important of
events; or rather, they are the only important ones. Nay as
separated from the more strictly logical and scientific provinces
of Thought, wherein Philosophy, Polity, Economy, and all man-
ner of didactic and immediately practical speculations hold their
rule, Literature has still a wide empire in man's mind; and if
not the widest, yet the deepest and surest; for its sphere is in
our inmost nature, and embraces the primary fountains whence
Thought and Action take rise. Defined never so narrowly, Liter-
ature includes the whole Kingdom of Poetry, which is indeed the
soul and essence of what in common speech, we specially mean
by that vague term. So that Literature, if it be not Thought, is
the Music of Thought; which indeed does not plead to us by logical
demonstration and computation, yet awakens mysterious and far
more potent impulses than these: the deep tones of Imagination,
the gay melodies of Fancy, which sound or slumber in every bos-
om; and once awakened, lead not to this action or to that, but to
all Action; thenceforward moulding our whole life and mind. We
err much when we suppose that Understanding, the part of our
nature which can be moved by syllogisms, is stronger than Ima-
gination; which last, we may rather say, is as the boundless In-
visible to the small Visible, as the infinite Universe to the little
horizon we command with our eye. 9 It is but a small portion of
any life that is determined by perception of things seen: the dull-
est worlding worships not his golden or clay idols, of guineas or
acres, but a divinity which lies hidden in these; he knows well, his
sleep is not softer, or his fare more savoury, than the poor man's;
only he would have an unseen empire in the hearts of his brethren;
he too is an Idealist, sacrifices Ease to Ambition, the palpable and
calculable to the invisible good. Our very senses, whether for
pleasure or pain, are little more than implements of Imagination.
What are Fear and Hope, mounting to rapture, or sinking to de-
spair, but Pictures which it draws? Nay even for the dullest of
us is not our earthly Life a little Isle of Dreams girdled round by
the infinite Unknown? Is not all vision based on Mystery, all Mat-
ter Spirit^ or something stranger, and our week day business
shadowed over by thoughts that wander thro' Eternity? ^ Fearful,
majestic, unfathomable, in these hearts of ours, is the Witness
and Interpretess of that Unknown! Her minister, the Poet, were
he true to himself and to his art, is still an Orpheus; can bend the
knotted oaks with his lyre! Our whole Life has been shaped and
moulded by him; our thought, our will still hangs on his words:
his domain is all the Infinite in man. 'Who but the Poet, ' cries
one, himself the noblest of living Seers and Singers, 12 'who but
the Poet was it that first formed gods for us; that exalted us to
them, and brought them down to us! '
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? 4
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
Apart from these deeper considerations, it is curious to
observe how universally the Poet still vindicates his sway over
us, how the Pleasures of Imagination are part of the inheritance
of all men. In every man, there lies a mystic universe, which
when the words, 'Let there be light, '13 are spoken, starts into
visibility; and the astonished soul beholds itself in that wide
Wonderland, which thence forward with all its splendour and its
gloom, is to be our own. Who can forget his Fairy Tales, his
Giantkiller, and Fortunatus, and Doctor Faustus, whether learned
from the lips of a garrulous nurse; or purchased, in sackcloth-
and-ashes paper, with the penny saved from sweetmeats ? 14 It
was then for the first time that Mind was found to be higher than
Matter; the Palate compared with the Imagination a barren thing.
And afterwards, when an enlightened skepticism had demolished
those glittering air-castles, and now only Truth and pictures of
Truth were to be our joy, was Imagination, as we fancied, broken
down into a patient house-drudge menial; or still, tho' under more
cunning guise, lord paramount of the inward Kingdom? We again
followed the Ideal, our best wealth was not of this world. Not as
seen with the dim bodily eye, but as mirrored in the magic of
Imagination, had Man and Nature their true meaning for us. Our
first Novel, our Crusoe, our Roderick Random, in which Fiction
wearing a new semblance of Reality, still shadows forth a scene
which is ideal, was again one of the most memorable epochs in
our life. 15 What happens to one has, in this form or the other,
happened to all. There is no nation, raised one grade above the
wild animals, that has not what we may call its Literature: its
Traditions, its Mythologies, its Singers and Narrators. The
Arabs gather round their fire in the desart, and think not of sleep,
while the inward eye is kept so wakeful: in the tale of venturous
love, with its moving accidents by flood and field, all bodily things
are forgotten, and every spirit hangs entranced on the spirit of
the speaker, as if his rudely modulated utterance were music of
the spheres. Nay the Lazzaroni on the quays of Naples, have their
Romancers; and even pay them copyright: often, on bright days,
among these ragged children of nature, appears some ragged ora
tor, or reader, with his time-worn and thumb-worn Tasso, 1? or
his clear, unworn memory and invention; the circle closes round
him; shaggy faces, dark eyes kindle with his story; by word and
gesture they applaud, condemn, pity or triumph; and alas, at
the utmost nodus, that spiritual Magnetiser stops short, and the
copper coins must all be lodged in his hat, before the spell will
proceed. So sweet is the music of Poesy even to the simplest;
so far into the outskirts of existence has Imagination asserted her
sway.
Thus Literature may be called the earliest and the noblest pro-
duct of man's spiritual nature; and at all epochs of his history, is
to be seen spreading out, in flowers and fruits, over the whole field
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? OF LITERATURE
5
of his existence. From the time of the Sibylline Verses to that
of the London Gazettes, the spoken or written Word, under a
thousand different aspects prophetic, poetic, didactic, has ever
been the grand index and agent of our progress; the element in
which Mind lived and moved. Literature unites the Past with
the Present; and the scattered Present into one whole: itself
silent and bodyless, only in the long run a picture of the brain,
it utters and embodies the voices and doings of all generations,
and of separate Men makes Nations and a Mankind.
Still more impressive and universally palpable have been its
influences in later, chiefly in very late times, when being not
only the festive song or worship of the people, but their business
speech also, it has gone forth professedly as the exponent of
their Opinion, and thereby as ultimate regulator of all their in-
terests. Literature is now seen to be not only a moving power
among men, but the most important of all moving powers. In
truth, it is both a new name, and a new form, new mode of oper-
ation, for much that has always been most essential in society.
Literature, that is to say, the empire of the Press, has spread
itself over many ancient provinces whence reverent oracles were
wont to issue for our guidance; and is yet spreading daily, so
that in time all must become tributary to it, or be absorbed in it.
Our sole accredited Teachers, in these days, are Books: it is by
their light, as it reaches us immediately through types, or medi-
ately thro' oral exposition, that in all things we act and walk;
Books are more than Kings to us, they are also prophets and
priests. 17 Independently of Journals and other Political writ-
ings, which in every country where there is a free Press, must
ultimately render Government, be its technical form what it may,
a Democracy, and perhaps the only genuine and possible Demo-
cracy, 18 reducing the duty of the Sovereign to that of a mere Po-
liceman, better or worse paid, more or less kindly dealt with, --
there is no department of our public or private interests over
which Literature does not rule, acknowledged or not, with abso-
lute authority. The ideas of the wisest are now spoken in the
hearing of all; and these, one day, when the ideas of the foolish
are evaporated, must and will become the universal law. Clergy
may preach, and Senators enact: but the true preachers and law-
givers of the community lie in the shelves of Libraries. 19 With
few does religious belief extend much farther than the threshold
of the Church: him who on Sunday listened as an orthodox tithe-
paying Christian to the godlike lesson of Humility, 20 yOU shall
find on Monday with percussion pistols at Chalk Farm. 21 Does
he not believe in the Thirty-Nine Articles ? Faithfully, it may
be; but these are only the patent ladder for mounting into Heaven;
the 'way of the world' points in quite another direction. The
world learns its ways, not from Church Articles and Visitation
Sermons, but in complex action and reaction, on the three thousand
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? 6
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
four hundred gentlemen that write with ease. 22 Let any one try
to compute the influence of the very Minerva Novels! 23 These
washy husks are thrown on the virgin mould of our young and as
yet empty mind, where even the half-dead grain of mustard-seed
will be forced into life, and grow to be a wide-spreading tree.
It is they that teach us our magnanimities, and punctilios, and
senses of honour, and the other meteors and shooting-stars we
steer by: the common Compass-card of Profit and Loss, with
the needle, agitated but constant, ever pointing homeward, com-
pletes, in combination with these, our instruction for the voyage.
How many real flesh-and-blood biographies have those same
pasteboard Cliffords and Adelaides" shaped out and modelled,
whose Moral Philosophy, brought home by example to every bos-
om, lectures to the unfurnished head from all Circulating Libra-
ries, and at second hand wherever two or three are gathered to-
gether! Books are now to us as the lamp of our whole path; and
the most miserable rushlights and falsest will-o'-wisps find some
to lead and mislead.
Of an element so important in man's life as Literature, nay
which is fast becoming all-important, some inspection and des-
criptive survey, could not but seem useful. Accordingly the
smallest insight into so vast a matter, any vestige of order point-
ed out in what, by nature, seems so fortuitous, and miscellane-
ous, and infinitely completted, is and has long been universally
welcome. Witness so many Critics, with their 'Courses of Litera-
ture'; and more lately, the Elegant Extractors, Specimenists, and
the whole mixed multitude of Reviewers, reprospective and cir-
cumspective, innumerable as the sea-sands; so that it might al-
most seem as if the Madrid Glass-manufactory were our pattern,
wherein for eleven workmen there were nineteen clerks. Never-
theless the parallel does not hold; for these clerks, if worth any-
thing, are themselves glass-makers, nay lustre-makers, and
throw out prismatic light on the whole shop. Of the many that
work in green glass, and throw out nothing but a pallid darkness-
visible, let no mention be made here. --
Above all, any History of a National Literature, could it be
accomplished according to the ideal of such a work, might prove
the most instructive of all the Histories. History is written that
we may understand how men, in time past, have lived and had
their being; what they have done, and, which is still more im-
portant, what they have been. Now a national Literature, so far
as it can deserve that name, is not only the noblest achievement
of the nation, but also the most characteristic; the truest emblem
of the national spirit and manner of existence; out of which, in-
deed, it directly springs, as a purified essence, and disembodied
celestial, [sicjlikeness, and into which again, in strong influences,
it continually descends. 25 Nowhere does the mind and life of a
nation, in all its specialties, and deep-laid yet light and almost
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? OF LITERATURE
7
evanescencent fsicl individualities, so faithfully shadow itself,
as in the mirror of its Art and Literature; in which two, or in
rather which last, for it virtually includes the former, lies the
only complete record both of What it has felt and thought, and
of How it has felt and thought. These charmed words of the
Poet are as windows into his own inmost soul, and into those
others that loved and encouraged him in his art. Whereas the
movements of the Statesman or Captain, tho' whole kingdoms
hung thereon, are at best out-of-doors transactions; between us
and their real origin and meaning, stand always dark walls, im-
penetrable except to our surmises. The Historian who should
picture for us, in any measure, the true significance of a national
Literature, would bring the essential life of the nation far nearer
us than he who treated merely of its material operations whether
in War or Industry, nay even of its Laws and Polity. Or rather,
let us say, each of these aspects, well illustrated, would add
clearness to the other; and so, comparing Word with Act, a much
truer insight into the whole living phenomenon might be obtained.
Still more profitable for such insight would a Series of Liter-
ary Histories be, wherein all nations were brought into view of
one another, and the united light of a Whole, more and more per-
fectly evolving itself in that survey, should be made to illustrate
each of the Parts. For the rest, the manifold uses of such na-
tional intercourse, and mutual understanding, are palpable enough.
This closer acquaintanceship among nations, this new curiosity
we are all manifesting towards our neighbours, especially the ef-
fort everywhere making to gain some knowledge of their Literature,
is justly reckoned among the most cheering signs of the times.
Directly in face of that poor calumny on human nature that those
we know least are often best esteemed, it may be asserted that
among nations, as among individuals, Knowledge, provided it be
genuine, is the sure parent of Affection; that to no man, not to the
meanest and worst, did we thoroughly penetrate his secret heart,
and survey from his point of view the strange chaotic quarry of
Difficulties and Possibilities, among which he lives, and where-
from he, even he, has built up or begun a little edifice of Freewill,
and Moral Good, should we refuse some pity, some approval and
Love. This freer intercourse, and reciprocal familiarity among
nations, whom Commerce indeed brings together, but only Litera-
ture can cause [to] speak together, and understand each other, is
already widening our horizon, and adding in many ways to our in-
tellectual gratification and resources: but its effects one day may
be much more momentous than these. What is it, for example,
but strangeness to each other, but ignorance of each other, that
influences national hatreds, aggravates all casual misunderstand-
ings into fierce discord, and makes the bloody delirium of War
almost perpetual in this Earth? Let nations begin to know each
other, and they will begin to love each other; for virtues are in
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? 8
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
each, otherwise it were not there;26 and man is drawn by invisible
links towards all worth in man. Surely the time will come when
nations instead of regarding themselves as natural enemies, will
find that they are natural friends; when it will be discovered that
we are all brothers and fellow-soldiers engaged, as our fathers
have been and as our sons will be, in one mighty ever-enduring
warfare against Necessity and Evil, and that all other war is but
madness and wicked mutiny. Or if this time can never arrive,
the nearer and nearer approximation of it may be longed for;
wherein if madness must visit certain of us, it may be known
for madness, and by interposition of the sane, be softened in
its paroxysms, and the sooner put an end to.
Such fruits, even in a political respect, are to be anticipated
from the general cultivation of foreign Literature, from the free
interchange of Thought between nation and nation; and this the
more surely and speedily, as the influence falls first and strong-
est on the learned classes, who by their writings are guides of
the unlearned. What still higher benefits, in a moral and spirit-
ual point of view, might follow, were the Literature of all coun-
tries harmonized, in thinking minds, into one World-Literature;27
wherein all that was accidental, transient, local should fall away;
and only the necessary, universal and perennial remaining, the
entire Truth, now so disjointed and discoloured, of man's past
Existence and Endeavour should unite itself into one magnificent
Whole, accessible to all, and thenceforward to be consciously
cooperated in by all: this is a cheering consideration in part open
to every one, yet stretching into long dim vistas, which the wisest
cannot discriminate into form, yet look upon with wonder and hope.
Literature is now not only our grand Arsenal and Storehouse,
wherein all that Time has done for us is to [be] preserved and turned
to use; but it is becoming also, what is infinitely more, our grand
Metropolitan Temple, where, if anywhere, all men are to meet
and worship. 28 To the perfection and purifying of Literature, of
Poetry, [of]Art, all eyes are turned; for in these times the deepest
interests of man seem to be involved in it; the ashes and fast-
burning fragments of the whole Past lie there, from which, amid
clouds and whirlwinds, The Phoenix Future^9 is struggling to un-
fold itself.
The Historian of a National Literature, could he ever hope to
embrace the whole meaning of his subject, would have two things
to do. First, to decipher and pourtray the spiritual form of the
nation at each successive period; how the Universe and man's Life
painted itself to their minds; and with what means, purposes, suc-
cess, they endeavoured, in gayety or earnestness, to copy and out-
wardly represent this picture. Secondly, we could wish him to
show us in what combination of external or internal circumstances,
this particular form of mind originated; not only that such and such
was the spiritual aspect of affairs, but how it came to be so. The
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? OF LITERATURE 9
whole secret of that Literature were thus laid open to us; and
many secrets besides; for we should now see clearly into the
hidden inward structure of that nation, and wherein its social
Life specially consisted; whatsoever nobleness and good it had
realized we might, in the highest conceivable degree, compre-
hend and appropriate.
Literary Historians have nowise lost sight of these severe
conditions they work under, nay rather that second and far hard-
er condition has stood too fixedly before them. Descanting, with
or without examination, with or without descriptive gift, on the
external characters of a Literature, they have seldom neglected
to look out, diligently enough, for the inward sequences and mov-
ing causes; being proud to make their History too, what general
History has long boasted of being, Philosophy teaching by Ex-
perience. 30 On the whole, that tendency we have to theorize on
all things, to 'account' for all things, is but our natural love of
order, put in action; and blameless, praiseworthy, so it over-
step not the limits. Nothing can be more natural than for a man
to build himself some small theoretical Observatory, whence he
may look around upon the world a little; only let him not try to
reach the Heavens with it, otherwise it proves a Tower of Babel,
and ends in confusion of tongues. The Stars are seen more clear-
ly from some stations than from others; but they are not to be
handled and dipt in pieces from any. Literature, Poetry, the
Sphere-music of man's soul, is one of those divine things, which,
it is to be feared, no Science, with its school-gamut, will ever
give us mastery over. Meanwhile we have theories enough where-
in the whole course and mechanism of Poetry is explained; how
it rises, prospers, declines, and even finally terminates, for
except perhaps Cookery, there seems to be no deathless art in
this world. Various are the genetical schemes of such philoso-
phers: sometimes, for instance, Poetry is found to depend on
National Wealth; as if the Greeks in the age of Homer had been
richer than in that of Alexander, the ancient Hebrew Prophets
than the modern Hebrew Goldschmids and Rothschilds. Then
again comes a Denina31 with his Political Freedom; all depends
on Freedom, on a popular constitution: forgetting the eras of
Pericles, Augustus, Leo, Philip Second; and the inconsiderable
Literature of Sparta and the Four Forest Cantons. Freedom
truly it is that makes Poets, that would make us all Poets, in
word or, still better, in deed; but Freedom of an infinitely more
surprising sort than that of the elective franchises; such Free-
dom as an Epictetus, 32 under slave fetters, may plentifully pos-
sess, and the boldest voter in Westminster, tho' the very rivers
ran ale, may altogether want. Which latter Freedom he were a
cunning man that could show us how to come at. But perhaps the
daintiest of all theories is that which makes poetry mount and
sink inversely, balance-wise, with the culture of Language. 33
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? 10 HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
A half savage language, so it be vague and passionate enough,
gives rise to Poetry; a logical, definite, transparent language
extinguishes it: so that till some sort of Sicilian-vespers be en-
acted on the whole breed of Grammarians, there is henceforth
no prospect of a Poet. We had always understood that Swift was
mistaken when he ascribed to Tailors a creative virtue: 34 here,
however, if there be truth in similitudes, it is not the man that
produces his coat, but the coat that produces its man.
Thus does Philosophy overshoot itself: in stretching our log-
ical faculty to impossible lengths, we pervert and neglect the
province that really lies under its dominion. To the Political
Historian himself, many things, or rather, if he well consider
it, all things, stand rooted in mystery; show only faint super-
ficial glimmerings of their meaning, and remain at bottom in-
finitely-complected, indescribable, unknowable. Much more
so to the Historian of Literature, whose subject of itself leads
him into invisible regions; where not the origin only but even the
result is mysterious. The truth is, those Cause-and-effect
Philosophers, who for every Why are so ready with their Where-
fore, and can spin the whole chaos of human things into a single
thread, or bead-string, are no trustworthy guides. For all man-
ner of Historians, it were more advisable to narrow their enter-
prize within moderate limits: to look upon themselves as witness-
es set there to report and intelligibly represent the things visi-
ble, as they successively or simultaneously emerge; but for the
primary causes and grand moving agencies, to consider these as
a mighty sea, some of whose tides and surface currents it were
indeed blindness not to note; but whose interior secrets, in their
bottomless depths, defy all sounding. 35
It will be understood that in this little undertaking of ours,
which we have named History of German Literature, a far hum-
bler model lies before us. No complete, continuous delineation,
still less any scientific scheme and theory, of the collective
Thought and Culture of the Germans; but only some Series of
light, far-off Historical Sketches relating thereto, can be looked
for here. 36 Nay, were there no other hindrance, the position
of our readers in regard to this matter is not such as to warrant
any deeper attempt. For us English, the Literature of Germany
is almost an untouched subject, whose existence alone has been
made apparent; in respect of which, as yet no curiosity, beyond
that of the lower and primary sort, presses for satisfaction.
How speak with elaborate precision, and in the style (? ] of philo-
sophic deduction, about an object, the whole nature of which is
to most of our hearers unknown? Neither, for the English writer,
even tho' this were all otherwise, are the helps he can find in
English Libraries, or from English discussion whether printed
or spoken, sufficient for great efforts.
Our Public Libraries are
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? OF LITERATURE
11
poor in German Books; or rather, with scarcely more than one
exception, 37 altogether destitute of such. Personal communi-
cation, again, even with the learned and intelligent, touching
this subject, will oftener yield darkness than light. As matters
stand, the English inquirer into German Literature is yet rather
a pioneer than a free traveller and observer: on all sides he is
beset with obscurities and complexities, for which, except in his
own resources, such as they may be, there is no aid or outlet.
Meanwhile, German Literature, like a world formed under
Darkness, has suddenly torn asunder its concealments, and now
stands before all nations, the more wondrous that it was unlooked
for, inviting and demanding inquiry. Probably there is not now
any thinking man in England, or in Europe, to whom insight into
the spiritual condition of the Germans were indifferent. Among
ourselves, in particular, the fat contented ignorance only yester-
day so universal on that subject, has abated, and is abating, with
strange rapidity: at the very least, those melancholy maunderings
from our Critical spokesmen, who now see themselves reduced
to one of two extremities, either to acquire some perceptible
knowledge of the matter, or altogether to hold their peace touch-
ing it,--may be considered as finished, probably forever. On
all hands it begins to be understood that the Germans as a Liter-
ary nation stand on a deep and quite independent basis; that their
Literature, alone of all existing Literatures, has still some claim
to that ancient 'inspired gift,' which alone is Poetry; that it is not
only a clear melodious Echo of the present Time, but also a Pro-
phecy of a new and better Time, traces and incipient forms of
which already lie revealed there. 38
So general is public Curiosity on this head; combined too with
a state of Knowledge, such that even the smallest accession is
felt and welcome. Doubtless, in any Historical Survey of German
Literature, with its singular products, and the singular circum-
stances of their production, many pleasant views are discover-
able, and some useful insight may be communicated even by a
stranger and for strangers. One thing it clearly enough lies in
his power to do: to report what he has himself seen and known;
well distinguishing it from what he has only heard of or half
known; whereby if our map of intellectual Germany have but few
cities on it accurately determined, the vacant spaces may be left
honestly vacant, not filled up by Anthropophagi and Mountains of
the Moon. All aspects of our subject, all methods of represent-
ing these, whatsoever can seem interesting to English readers
as they now are, be it Biographical or Critical, National or Uni-
versal, characteristic of Literary men or of Literary things, we
shall hold to lie open for us: where there is little that promises
to interest such readers, we need not linger, need not even pause.
Could these local glances into the field of German Literature be
faithfully delineated, the stations they are taken from being first
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? 12
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
well chosen, some outline of that vast, many-sided phenomenon
might grow therefrom, and help to forward and direct the study
of it; preparing us afar off for that clear History, and Philosoph-
ic picture and Estimate, which must one day, whether as separ-
ate book, or as existing at large in the minds of thinking men,
be formed among us; in which History and Estimate, all such be-
ginnings and approximations as the present might be happily ab-
sorbed and forgotten.
On one other point it is fit that the reader and I should have
some understanding, if such do not already exist between us:
What we are specially to understand by the term German Liter-
ature; from what classes of intellectual objects are we entitled
to select those delineations of ours; what classes are they that
may without blame be omitted? To define that vague word Lit-
erature, as here used, might be difficult; neither perhaps is it
very necessary. In its primitive sense, which it still partially
retains, the Literature of any country means the sum-total of
the printed Books in that country. In more strict language, es-
pecially now that Books have so multiplied on us, all manner
of Sciences, and scientific Speculations, Philosophy, Theology,
and so forth, are struck off from our idea of Literature; and
there remains that large, not easily definable body of writings
which, without technical apparatus, address themselves direct-
ly to the whole people. Yet neither is this all Literature: Cob-
bett's Cottage Economy39 is not a Literary work. Perhaps, as
hinted above, we might say that the essential character, as it
were, the inmost nucleus of Literature is Poetry; that whatever
had not in it some emanation of Poetry, whatever did not in some
sort address itself both to all men and to the whole man, to his
affections as well as to his intellect, were no longer Literature. 40
But here again, especially in countries where from eight to
ten thousand imaginative persons are all busy addressing both
the intellect and affections of whosoever will buy their books,
some further distinction becomes necessary; and the question
returns on us: What is Literature, what is mere printed Talk?
Fichte has defined the Literary man to be him only who possess-
es, or with his whole heart strives after, the 'Divine Idea of the
World, '41 what Word sworth in his own dialect has called 'the
Vision and the Faculty divine';42 in which definition, it is mourn-
ful to think how many myriads of amiable gild-brethren sink into
endless sleep.
Happily that task of defining, in this instance, falls rather on
the Logician, or Grammarian than on the Historian, For prac-
tical purposes, we already well nigh understand what is Literature
and what is No-literature, as the cases come before us. At all
events, throughout the greater part of our present course, Time
has already applied his test for us; what was not Literary has per-
ished; nothing that has not some degree of perennial intrinsic worth
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? OF LITERATURE
13
by whatever name we may call it, will be permanently remem-
bered. 43 Nay in its very antiquity there lies a claim to our re-
gard: were it even worthless and nowise Literary, yet as having
once been popular and reckoned literary, it deserves remem-
brance .
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? Chapter II
[Antiquity and Integrity of the German People. German Nation-
al Characteristics. The Northern Immigrations and Their Im-
portance in World History. The Greatness of the Present Ger-
man Culture. ] 44
IF ANTIQUITY and unmixed descent be an honour among na-
tions, the German people, in that respect, may boast itself su-
perior to all its neighbours. We other European nations are but
of yesterday, the oldest of us scarcely counting ten centuries;
for our fathers were wafted together by all the four winds; and
blending in a fierce war-embrace, have left us a most composite
existence; so that in blood, habits, language, we are kinsmen
of all the world. Of the three grand elements, the Celtic, Ro-
man and Gothic or Teutonic, from which our modern European
population springs, the two former are now nearly obliterated
as distinct existences: the Romans long since fused away into
the general mass; the Celts languishing, in thinner and thinner
remnants, here and there, along the rocky coast; waiting as it
were till Time consume them also, and Brittany and Albyn be
as Cornwall: only the Teutschen, as true modern Teutones,
still dwell on their own soil, speaking their own tongue;45 a power-
ful nation in the heart of new Europe, and looking back for their
original to the migrations of Odin, and high fabulous times when
great captains and conquerors were also gods.
What degree of advantage there may be in this; nay whether,
quite contrariwise, a later origin, inferring numerous and even
violent intermixtures, is not the best, we shall not minutely in-
quire here. At all events, the old Athenian boast of Autochthon-
ism were but a vain one in these times: for, be our birth what it
may, there is nod] neither can there be[,J any such thing as inde-
pendent, self-regulated growth and culture for a nation; least of
all, in this ever-fluctuating, all-combining, all-dividing Europe,
where, at this day, to say nothing of our Eastern Coffees and
Cottons, such has been our frank intercourse and brotherhood,
we write with Italian, perhaps Phoenician Letters, compute with
Arabic or Hindoo Numerals, worship with Hebrew Books. Never-
theless Coherence, Perseverance is the first condition of all at-
tainment; and not less of inward than of outward attainment, of
moral depth and greatness, than of physical power. A nation that
has no treasure in the Past cannot be wealthy, save perhaps in
money, which for nations as for individuals is the plainest, but
the most transient and intrinsically the poorest sort of wealth.
Sismondi's Nation of Steam-engines46 could manufacture marki \-
goods; nay perhaps by its superior steadiness in work, and che; >er
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? THE GERMAN PEOPLE
15
method of subsistence (on coals) might undersell the others,
and become the richest: but only a nation of Men can produce
Tells and Luthers, Iliads*? and Hamlets, 48 Bibles and Divini-
ties. Not what we have; in a far higher degree, what we are is
the measure of our value. A national character, which is for a
nation what established principles and a given way of thought are
for a man, cannot grow up except in Time; and the older it is,
the more fixed will it be, and generally the better perfected, and
in its kind the worthier.
That the Germans have endured so long as a separate people,
is itself proof or presumption that their national character must
have some depth; that, at all events, it must ere now be well con-
firmed, and have in all ways clearly expressed itself. The vul-
gar persuasions, current here and elsewhere on this head, might
indeed teach us quite the contrary; but these verdicts, grounded
for most part on mere ophthalmic illusions, will not mislead us.
It is with nations as with men: the deepest excellence is nowise
the soonest recognised; only of physical strength and the talent
for dancing can all eyes judge. Thus, many times, metaphori-
cally as well as literally, honest Worth is left starving on the
street, while forward Dexterity, wheedling and smirking its way,
sits warm and fares sumptuously within. To that immortal ques-
tion, Si un Allemand peut avoir de l'esprit? 49 the Germans might
have answered: We have our Keplers, 50 and Luthers, and Fausts, 51
and the daily life of all men is rich with their inventions; mais
vous, Gualches, 52 qu'avez vous invents?
The political condition and constitution of the Germans, with
its wild discords, and loose unwieldy combination, had often been
little favourable for the free development of a national character:
nevertheless there is much visible among them, even in the worst
periods, to win our regard; if their character want something in
practical adroitness, it has a force, sincerity, and earnest noble-
ness, which is of far rarer value. Already in Tacitus' time, we
discern, in those German manners, features of a rude greatness;
in their dark Forests already dwelt the future regenerators of
Europe, under whom the old corrupt world was to be swept away
as an abomination, and a new world under fairer omens for man-
kind to evolve itself. The first characteristic of those ancient
Germans in the philosophic picture of Tacitus, is their Bravery:53
they are a nation of armed men, and pass their lives amid peril
and adventure, in constant daring and endurance. Their very name,
Guerre-mans, is Wehr-manner, or War-men. * This is not that
* This is Friedrich Schlegel's etymology (Vorlesungen iiber
die Geschichte, V. I), 54 and seems authentic enough. It may
be remarked, at the same time, that the Germans have borne
and still bear a rather curious variety of designations. The
word Germans, or Guerre-mans (Scottice, also we might say
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? 16
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
light reckless contempt of death, which could be no distinction
for the Germans, in as much as all men, and most animals,
are capable of it; but a real, far deeper-rooted strength of
heart; stout, unflinching, ever-fresh Endeavour; familiarity
with Danger and Evil, and faith in their power to conquer these.
This same 'deliberate valour' (Tapferkeit) shines forth in their
whole prior and subsequent history: in the wild predatory voy-
ages of the Franks and Saxons, defying all seas and enemies
with their steel 'Knives, ' and frail leathern craft, 'whom, ' says
Sidonius Apollinaris, 56 'Shipwreck only incites, not frightens';
in the stubborn daring of many a Hermann and Civilis; in our
Garr-men) is altogether unknown in their own country; ap-
pears, indeed, to have been nothing more than the assumed
title of those Adventurers, who before Tacitus* or Caesar's
day, had crossed to the left bank of the Rhine, for the pur-
pose of spoiling the Gauls, and settling J? ) in their territory,
and might well call themselves War-men, since except war,
they had no trade there. For the Romans, to whom this was
the vanguard, and first sample, of these unknown hosts, the
casual title of a few became a name for the whole. By them-
selves, however, the Germans have been and still are named
Teutschen, or rather Deutschen; which last, or the equivalent
to it, we English, singularly enough, restrict to the Hollanders,
who have nowise the best right to it. By the French again they
are called Allemands, which also is a Roman designation (Ale-
manni from the native Alle-mSnner); originating in a similar
principle with the name Guerre-mans, and scarcely less sig-
nificant than this; meaning All-men. The Italian Tudeschi is
the only foreign name bearing even a faint resemblance to
their own; which courtesy, it might seem, the Germans have
but ill repaid; calling their southern neighbours, not Italians,
but Walschen, Welsh. -- But, on the whole, names do but sow
themselves 'in the drift-mould of Accident, ' and like many
other earthly things offer strange anomalies. Why, for ex-
ample, is our own country called Angle-land, and not as well
Jut-land, or still better Saxon-land ? The Buccaneers took
name from their hung-beef, or Boucan; which even in that hot
climate they were often glad to live on. Our stout ancestors,
the Saxons, it seems to be agreed on, are so called from the
word Sachs, which in the vulgar dialect of that region is said
to signify or have signified, Knife: Nennius (Historia Britonum)
states as a thing known to him that Hengist was wont to address
his men with a: Nimed eure Sahen (Nimmt eure Sachsen, Take
your Knives! )--which emphatic word-of-command, if genuine,
is doubtless the oldest in modern drilling. See Leibnitz; or
rather Mascov (History of the Germans, Vol. I, p. 242, of the
English Translation), from whom I derive this anecdote. 55
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? THE GERMAN PEOPLE
17
own Hengists and Alfreds; nay, it is still claimed by their great-
est Poet and Thinker, * as the basis of their present national
character.
Akin to this, or rather indeed its origin and root, is the
deep meditative temper, full of enthusiasm and affection, which
those same ancient Germans, and their modern descendants,
likewise exhibit. The Germans of Tacitus are a religious people;
nor is their Superstition a coarse materialism, like that of the
Greeks and Romans; but already an almost intellectual Belief,
stern, majestic, and of infinite melancholy. Their deity is Her-
tha, the Earth or World, the stupendous All;58 whom they wor-
ship without images, solely by the inward sense, not in temples,
but in deep groves, under their sacred Oaks, t no roof over them
but the blue Immensity. Their rites are not always bloodless,
yet not without a grandeur even in their cruelty. 'In an Island
of the Ocean, ' says Tacitus, 'there is a holy Grove; and within
this a consecrated Chariot covered with a cloth, which only one
priest is allowed to touch. In this shrine where he believes the
Goddess to be present, heifers are yoked to her chariot, and he
reverently follows it. Glad are the days, and festive the places,
wherever she deigns to tarry and be worshipped. No wars are
undertaken, no arms worn, all iron is shut up:^0 peace and re-
pose, strangers at other times, are now alone loved; till the
same priest, his Goddess having had enough of this society with
mortals, restores her to the temple; when the chariot and the
cloth, and if you may believe it, the Deity herself, is washed in
a secret Pool. Slaves do this office, whom straightway the same
Pool engulphs. Hence mysterious terror, and a sacred ignorance
what that may be which only those on the brink of death behold. '61
Nor are the kindly affections unknown to these rude bosoms:
the warriors, tho' they kill their slaves in fits of passion, do not
maltreat them in cold blood: the virtues of Hospitality they prac-
tice with more than uncivilized alacrity; no human guest is turn-
ed away; he that has not entertainment of his own to offer, ac-
companies the stranger to a neighbour's house, and is there wel-
* Goethe, in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, C. [16] B. [IV]57
t Long afterwards, one of the first proceedings of the Christ-
ian missionaries seems to have been to cut down these Oaks,
under the shadow of which the Germans not only worshipped,
says Mascov, 'but held their conventions and courts of judi-
cature. Such was the famous Oak near Geismar, in lower
Hessia, which was dedicated to the God of Thunder': our
English Boniface, backed by Government authority, cut down
this Thunder-Oak (about the year 850), 'to the great terror
of the people, ' whom however nothing special overtook. Long
Dissertations have been written on this Oak, --which from its
many acorns may have grandsons, or even sons, about Geis-
mar to this day. --Mascov. II. 293. 59
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? 18
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
corned along with him. But what most distinguished them from
all other unpolished tribes, ancient or modern, is their treat-
ment of their women. That the stronger should yield to the
weaker, should do homage to her as to a finer, higher nature,
is no dictate of rude instinct; but the late result of moral con-
templation, almost of religion. The old-Germans show a noble
devotion to their women; the ground-plan of a whole future Chiv-
alry lies traced here. 62 They think that there is in females 'a
certain divineness'; these have authority in their counsels; they
are their prophetesses and guardian genii; and are looked upon
with a heartfelt respect, for which the hollow ceremonies of
modern gallantry, whereby the woman, idolized with a certain
mouth-worship, is intrinsically degraded into a beautiful, un-
reasonable plaything, are but a poor substitute. Nor are the
Old-German wives unworthy of this honour; for indeed, giving
honour is often, in such cases, an assurance that it will be de-
served; as popular prophecy brings about its own fulfilment.
The utmost purity of conjugal morals prevails; but these women
are brave, helpful, high-minded, as well as chaste. They ac-
company their husbands in war; fearlessly tend their wounds;
encourage them in the fight; and die with them if all is lost.
How that picture of the Cimbric Mother, whom, in the universal
rout and carnage, Marius' soldiers 'found hanging from the pole
of the waggon, with her children suspended by her feet, "* still
lives in our imagination, after eighteen hundred years;--one
stern Tear, not yet dried away, of the bitter many that have
flowed from broken hearts, and been forgotten! Often, says
Tacitus, the fortune of battles has been turned by the sudden
presence of the women. 64 in that revolt of Civilis, we find a
Velleda from amid her groves on the Lippe, animating and di-
recting the whole heroic enterprises. The spoils of victory are
sent to her: 'but to see or to address the Prophetess herself is
not permitted. She sits apart in a lofty tower; certain of her
relatives chosen for that purpose, like messengers of a divinity,
present the question and bring back the response. '! She is a
Poetess as well as Prophetess and Counsellor, an antique Makarie,
such as Goethe has in these days delineated;66 outwardly fragile
as a reed, yet by her inward clearness, her inward depth, lead-
ing at will the wild strength of men.
The very vices of the Germans do not belie this character,
but rather naturally grow out of it, in such a state of culture as
theirs. These are not indolence and cruelty, passive and active
love of selfish Ease, the common vices of barbarians; but rather
an inordinate passion for social excitement; fierce gambling, and
* Plutarch, in Marius. 63
t Tacitus. Hist. L. IV: C. 67. 65
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? THE GERMAN PEOPLE
19
that excess, which in tavern language is still said to be 'the
feast of souls, ' but in the vulgar dialect is called Drunken-
ness. * Their amusements, which are war-dances and the like;
still more their domestic customs, in regard to childhood, to
majority, to marriage, and the other grand epochs of life; above
all, that rigorous love of Justice, and deep, steadfast, untame-
able spirit of Freedom, which is based thereon are features of
an earnest, high-minded, heroic, people, worthy of the great
work they were one day to perform.
Neither was there wanting, in those early times, a certain
semblance of Literature; if what was not committed to writing,
there being yet no Letters, can deserve that name. A vast
Northern Mythology, full of gloomy grandeur; connecting itself
with the primeval Science and Philosophy of the East;68 yet in-
dependent in structure, and a type of the Northern mind, has
descended, we may say, even to these days: thro' oblique chan-
nels, indeed, and greatly perverted; yet in its groundwork an-
tique, and the property of the whole Northern nations. Wondrous
glimpses into the old and oldest Time, faint dubious light waver-
ing as thro' a submerged City of the Dead, we still have, in those
Eddas and Sagas. What part of all this is due to the more modern
Skalds of Iceland, what to the ancient common stock, it is now
impossible to determine. If Letters are like an imperishable
engraving, Tradition is but an air-image, varying with every
variation in the cloud that reflects it.
But however this may be, we find in Tacitus' description, 69
the Barditus expressly set forth an important element of German
Life. The Bards, chaunting in fierce enthusiasm the exploits of
their heroes, are listened to on all festal occasions; they precede
armies to battle; inspiring them to high daring; they are at once
the Historians, the Singers, and public Preachers of the country.
Their songs of Arminius were in the mouth of the people, when
Tacitus wrote; nay as antiquarians would fondly persuade us
some tone of them still lingers there. Who would not prize any
the faintest tradition or memorial that could be referred with
even a shadow of certainty to this noble Hermann, whom tho' a
Barbarian, his proud enemies themselves thought worthy to be
ranked with their greatest heroes ! But unfortunately, if that
shadow of certainty be an essential, we must forbear such plea-
sure . t
* To certain of my readers it will be interesting to know that
our national English liquor, Ale (now brewed in Australia, and
the remotest west! ) was already the solace of these ancients.
'The liquid they drink, ' says Tacitus, 'is a preparation from
barley or corn, corrupted (corruptus) into a certain resem-
blance of wine. '67
t 'It is highly probable, ' says Mascov, 'that the famous
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