We are heartily sorry for the effect, which M. Hugo's works have produced on the minds of his own countrymen. The French stage has become a disgrace to any Christian and civilized people; and, as for those glorious dreams of liberty in which M. Hugo and his fellow-radicals indulge for France, they are utterly fantastical, and must remain so, while the spirit of their country is such as to produce and applaud works like his.

The noble growth of free institutions does not spring from a licentious and immoral soil. They are not the result of idle declamation, but the fruit of steadfast purpose. They are not the sudden offspring of public paroxysms, but the slowly ripened and widely gathered harvest of individual principle.

ART. VII. Letters auxiliary to the History of Modern Polite Literature in Germany. By HEINRICH HEINE. Translated from the German by G. W. HAVEN. Boston: James Munroe and Company. 1836.

WHATEVER we may think of the moral character, motives, and intentions of the author of this book, it claims attention as exhibiting the views and opinions of a man of uncommon talent on a subject, which cannot but be interesting to every person of liberal education, the condition of German literature during the last forty or fifty years. The literature of Germany of this period, like that of France, England, and Italy, is one of the causes as well as effects of the momentous changes wrought, within that short time, in the condition of Europe, and, in fact, of the civilized world. Indeed, if we wished to mention one of the most characteristic features of this time, it would be the immediate and reciprocal relation between literature and literary men on the one hand, and the political changes of the time on the other; and this not only in those departments of literature, which, being of a more practical character, are nearly connected with, and immediately affected by political changes, but even in those which might be, and for ages have been, considered independent of these external influences. Nor ought we to be surprised at this. The tremendous blows, which, from the commencement of

the French Revolution, were levelled, in quick succession, at the very foundation of all social institutions, and which were, in their turn, in part at least, the effect of the literary efforts of some of the leading minds immediately preceding and contemporary with that event, reached even the retired student, and roused him to a perception of the condition of the world about him. A conscientious man, however fond of quiet, could then no longer shut his eyes to the changes which were rapidly going on; and if he thought, spoke, or wrote, the events, whose current carried him along with the rest, could not but become the subject of his meditations, words, and writings. The natural consequence was, that most writers were influenced by these external circumstances to an extent never before witnessed in literature, and their works, in proportion as they gained in liveliness and spirit, lost in dignity and impartiality.

This observation applies in a greater degree, than common, to Mr. Heine. He is emphatically the child of his time. He grew up at a period when the minds of men, especially in France and Germany, were in a state of fermentation; when old and new doctrines on almost every subject, and old and new prejudices, were floating about in chaotic confusion; when there was every thing to stimulate and excite a young, active mind, and little to guide and check it. All those passions, which such a state naturally fosters, found, in the writer whom we are considering, a most congenial soil, and grew up luxuriantly. His very powers, which are of the first order, served to pamper these passions, by the facility with which they furnished the means of gratification. He is an enemy of superstition, bigotry, and tyranny, without being a friend of religion and true liberty; and he hates the vices of others without loving virtue. His perception of others' faults and foibles is as quick and sure, as his ridicule is pointed and his sarcasm withering. If his object be to depreciate the literary rank of an author, he does not hesitate to expose his personal character, and draw largely from the reservoir of private scandal to accomplish his end. He is like some characters whom we meet in society, gifted with a peculiar power of discovering the foibles and defects of others with a penetration, and exposing them with a malice and cleverness, which make them at once hateful and entertaining, nay, instructive. Even when he acknowledges the injustice of opinions

previously entertained, he does it in so ungracious or frivolous a manner as to deprive his recantation of much, if not all, of its merit. To expect impartiality and fairness of mind from an individual of this description would be unreasonable.

Does any one ask, Of what use, then, is the perusal of the writings of such a man? Of very little, indeed, if we look solely for lessons of virtue; but of great importance, if we want the testimony of a man of talent concerning his own time and its literature, and of still greater importance, when we consider that this same man is not only a witness testifying to what he has seen and what he knows, but to some extent himself an actor in the great drama which is going on, and surely no despicable actor in a state of society where books are the most powerful engines for good or evil.* Men of Mr. Heine's stamp may be opposed, their opinions refuted, and their influence counteracted; but they cannot be silenced. Any attempt to conceal their influence only enhances the danger. They are, and are active; and it is impossible to form a complete and correct idea of the present social condition of Germany, and its prospect, of which they constitute an element, without being acquainted with them and their agency.

Besides, Mr. Heine has excellences as well as faults; and, although we are far from considering them as amends for his errors, we are equally far from denying or concealing their existence. His natural powers are indisputably of a high order, and have been carefully cultivated. His information, although it partakes on some subjects too much of the character of smattering, is by no means despicable on others. This is the case with regard to the whole range of German literature. As a literary man, and more particularly as a critic, he deserves the attention of every German student, because he exhibits a penetration and clearness of perception, a strength and distinctness of delineation, an abundance and happiness of illustration, an appropriateness of comparison, and a liveliness, ease, and vigor of style, rarely united in one man. His control of the language is remarkable; we doubt whether he is surpassed or even equalled in this respect, by

* We saw lately in a newspaper the following article; "The German Diet have denounced by a formal decree, as tending to overthrow the social order of religion, a school of literature and philosophy known under the name of Young Germany, at the head of which is Henry Heine, a writer of much ability and celebrity."

any writer of the present time. He combines the volatile, effervescent spirit of the French with the philosophical depth of the German. He evidently writes with an ease which sometimes approaches too nearly to carelessness. The bad habit of using foreign, especially French words, when a German one would answer as well, is perhaps excusable, being accounted for by the fact that he originally wrote this work in French and for the French. His poetical talent, even if he had not evinced it by particular productions which rank him high among the living poets of Germany, is apparent both from his appreciation of the same power in others, and from the beauty of many passages in the work under consideration, passages which have all that constitutes true poetry except versification. The account of the girl in the vicinity of Göttingen, who fell a victim to her misplaced affection and ill-regulated reading, with the exception, indeed, of a few eruptions of the author's inveterate frivolity; the comparison of the heroes of the Niebelungenlied to an assembly of the Gothic cathedrals of Europe; the description of the muse of Tieck, readily present themselves to us as examples.

From this short and hasty sketch of Mr. Heine as a literary man, it is at once apparent that he presents a strange mixture of good and bad qualities, and that it were equally incompatible with justice wholly to condemn or unconditionally to praise him. He is a phenomenon, and a very interesting one, of the time; and as such we present him to our readers. We are far from advocating or even excusing his political, theological, and philosophical opinions; but we would in fairness acknowledge the correctness, justice, and originality of many of his criticisms.

As the substance of the "Letters" has appeared in several different forms, we would state, for the purpose of guarding against misapprehension, that it formed, originally, a part of a larger work, written and published in French with the title Sur l'Allemagne, and that Heine, having reason to expect a translation into German, executed, perhaps, by an unfriendly hand, resolved to undertake this task himself. From fear of the censorship established in most of the German States, as well as from a due regard for the feelings of his countrymen, he omitted not only the political, but also the most offensive portion of the theological and philosophical parts. This modified work is the original of Mr. Haven's translation,

with the contents of which we shall now proceed to make our readers acquainted. In doing this we shall use, as far as possible, Mr. Heine's own words, in order to give not merely an account of his opinions, but also, with the least possible sacrifice of space, some specimens of his manner.

Mentioning Madame de Staël's work on Germany, as the occasion of his own, and the influence which A. W. Schlegel exercised upon her views, Heine is at once led to speak of that school in German literature, to the examination of which the larger portion of this work is devoted. He considers the two Schlegels as the leaders of the Romantic School, which he defines as the re-awakening of the poetry of the middle ages, as it manifested itself in the songs, the paintings, the architecture, the arts and manners of that period; which poetry was the offspring of Catholicism, then the only form of Christianity in Western Europe. Of this he says, that it was necessary as a wholesome reaction against the fearfully colossal materialism which had developed itself in the Roman Empire, and threatened with annihilation the whole spiritual supremacy of man.

"Sensuality had so usurped control in the Roman world, that the discipline of Christianity was fully needed for its subjection. After the banquet of a Trimalkion, must needs follow a rigid fast like Christianity." . . . . . "The too full-blooded frames of the barbarians were spiritualized by Christianity. It originated the civilization of Europe. This is the praiseworthy, the holy aspect of Christianity. The Catholic church in this respect won for itself the greatest claims to our veneration, to our astonishment. By the grandeur and genius of her institutions she knew how to tame the bestiality of the northern barbarians, and to overpower their brutal materialism."―pp. 10–12.

This supremacy of the mind, this spiritualism, is the characteristic of all the productions of art in the Middle Ages, whether in poetry, music, or architecture.

"The poetry of all these productions of the Middle Ages bears a decided character, by which it is distinguished from the poetry of the Greeks and Romans. In regard to this distinction, we entitle the former the Romantic, the latter the Classic School of poetry.".. .... "The Classic art had but to represent the finite, and its forms were identical with the idea of the artist. The Romantic art had to present, or rather to intimate, the infinite and purely spiritual relations, and hence took refuge in a system of

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