)82J. 



The German Student, No. XF III.— Herder. 



SS 



bow-strings were broke ; i. e. their arms 

 unserviceable. Hence, when one would 

 give another absolute assurance of meei - 

 ing him, he would say, proverbially, 

 " Hold, or cut bow-strings, i. e. whe- 

 ther the bow-strings //eW or broke, &c." 

 I rather suspect that " holiC was not 

 the word written by Shakspeare, but 

 has been erroneously substituted for 

 another, nearly the same in sound, but 

 of much greater significance : and that 

 the phrase made use of on those orca- 

 sious was — " Whole, or cut bow- 

 strings ;" as much as to say, " Whet'ier 

 your bow-strings be whole, or cut ; that 

 is, serviceable, or unsertuceable—m either 

 case, fail not to keep your appoint- 

 ment. W. C. 

 IZth Sept. 18 19. 



For the Monthly Magnzitie. 



THE GERMAN STUDENT. 



No. XVIII. — Herder. 



IN a series of biographic sketches 

 of (he principal German poetj, it is 

 not allowable wholly to omit the name 

 of Herder ; although but a small por- 

 tion of his writings were executed in 

 verse, and he owes his reputation more 

 to his critical than to his poetical effu- 

 sions. 



John Godfred Herder was horn at 

 Mohrungen in Prussia, on the 25th 

 August, 1744, wliere his father was 

 baker and parish clerk. Early fond of 

 reading, he used to strap himself to a 

 tree in the garden, and sit on high, 

 studying. A preacher named Trescho 

 employed him as a copyist, and as 

 writing-master to his children ; and, 

 observing in the lad quick talents, per- 

 mitted him to join the other lessons 

 given in the family. His rapid pro- 

 cress was remarked ; a physician, who 

 had lodgings at the house of the pastor, 

 took an interest in patronizing him ; 

 and an exhibition was obtained from 

 some cori)oration, by means of which 

 Herder was enabled to go and study 

 theology at Koniugsberg. He there at- 

 tendca the lectures of Kant, and was 

 much noticed by this distinguished 

 professor. Herder learned of him an 

 exoteric knack of expression, which, 

 while it betrayed inner courage of 

 inind, sheathed its sentiments in the 

 forms of customary mysticism. His 

 irst publi<-,ation was a Song to Cyrus, 

 an anthology of Hebrew beauties; it 

 was felt to announce leiirning and 

 talent, and occasioned his being invitc<l 

 to H (tastor^thip at Riga. This he ac- 

 cepted, and added txt tiie slender emo- 



luments of preacher, thesahiry of tutor 

 at the high school. The young prince 

 of Holstein-Entin was here one of his 

 scholars, and engaged Herder to con- 

 tinue his education as a private precep- 

 tor, and to accompany him on his tra- 

 vels. They traversed Germany and 

 France, visited together Paris, Sfras- 

 burg, where they bt^came acquainted 

 witii Goethe, Frankfort, Dresden, and 

 otlier places. At the close of this edu- 

 cation, Herder was recommended as 

 court-preficher to the court of Shaum- 

 burg-Lippc,and went toresideat Biike- 

 burg. There lie published several theo- 

 logical works; and especially a huge 

 quarto commentary on Genesis, entitled 

 ^elseste Urknnde des Menschen-Gesch- 

 lechts, that is Oldest Document of the 

 Human Race, in which heemleavoured 

 ti) show, that the cosmogony, prefixed 

 to the history of Abraham, must have 

 originated iu Mesopotamia, not Mith 

 Moses in Egypt; and that it includes 

 just such a theory of the origin of 

 things, as the imperfect philosophy of 

 the Babylonians might be supposed 

 then to invent. Substituting the pa- 

 negyrics of the archaeologist for the ad- 

 miration of faith, he lifted this cosmo- 

 gony above others, as the earliest 

 effort of incipient science, and the 

 primrose-blossom of vernal specula- 

 tion. The story of the fall was ex- 

 plained as an allegory, always and still 

 applicable to the entire human race. 

 The home of our parents is a garden 

 of Eden, where, without our toil, every 

 want is supplied, and every wise wish 

 gratified. The sexual curiosity at 

 length awakens ; the serpent lifts his 

 head and speaks, and the woman ac- 

 cepts the apple which he proffers. The 

 parents now banish from the sacred 

 floor of innocence the contagious exam- 

 ple of their adolescent children, and 

 condemn them to earn then- bread with 

 the sweat of their brow ; but a reason- 

 able (hough a precarious portion of the 

 ancient paradisial comforts are yet to 

 accompany them into the wide world, 

 to console and to attest their mortality. 

 This book drew from the Hanoverian 

 government the offer of a professorship 

 at Gottingen : but when Herder went 

 in \^'^'i thither to be installed, no ap- 

 probation or confirmation of the choice 

 had been leceived from the Elector in 

 London. It was rumoured that the 

 heterodoxy of Herder had occasioned 

 this omission of ratification; and tho 

 Duk(! of M''eiuiar, with characteristic 

 liberality, immediately trtausmitled to 

 Hcrdei- 



