210 



Tlie German Student, No. XXVII, [April I, 



at term-time their to the heir of Maria Theresa, as an 



fessors unlockin 



neglected halls, looking round for 

 auditors in vain, and returning in con- 

 tented silence with their quires undis- 

 rolled. Only five-and-twenty students 

 were nominally attached to the entire 

 institution. Wieland, however, did 

 not despair: four times a-week, for 

 about an hour and a half, the lectures 

 of the new principal, "on the State of 

 Nature and Society," were henceforth 

 to he heard. They aroused and at- 

 tracted attention, and the number of 

 students was doubled. Among the pu- 

 pils drawn thither by the celebrity of 

 Wieland may be distinguished Hanse, 

 the author of " Ardinghello." 



Some dissertations, inserted in the 

 fourteenth volume of Wielfind's col- 

 lective works, " On Rousseau's Idea 

 of our Original Condition," " On the 

 Perpetual Amelioration of Hunian 

 Society," " On the Supposed Declen- 

 .sion of the Human Race," &c. are 

 dt;tached portions of these lectures, 

 and probably comprehend all that was 

 most peculiar in them. That philoso- 

 phic and original, though not very de- 

 cent, novel, entitled " Koxkox and 

 Kikecpietsel, or the Mexican Paradise 

 Lost," is a work of this period, and is 

 profusely sprinkled with the oj)inions 

 advanced in the lectures. " Comba- 

 Liis," the best of Wieland's metrical 

 comic tales, was also composed at 

 Erfurt. 



Wieland complains in his corres- 

 pondence of the society of the place : 

 with his colleague Professor Mensel, 

 the compiler of a biographic dictionary 

 of German authors, he was indeed in- 

 timate ; but the house, which with 

 most solicitude and splendor of hospi- 

 tality collected all the wit and fashion 

 of the place, was, alas ! also distin- 

 guished for a licentiousness of charac- 

 ter, from which Wieland, the husband 

 and the father, practically shrunk 

 back, however tolerant his theory of 

 morals may appear ; and he the more 

 scrupulously confined himself habitu- 

 ally within his domestic circle, because 

 he had been accompanied to Erfurt 

 by a son of his friend Laroche, who 

 was intended to live in the fiimily as 

 a private pupil, and prematurely to 

 assert a privilege of attending the col- 

 lege lectures. Young Laroche cor- 

 responded with his lather, who had 

 been placed by Count Stadion in some 

 public office at "N'ienna, and who was 

 ambitious of recommending himself 

 I 



apologist of the reformations contem- 

 plated in the ecclesiastical order, 

 Wieland received through his pupil 

 early information of the official pro- 

 jects of reform ; corrected in manu- 

 script Laroche's pamphlet on the sup- 

 pression of monastic orders, and de- 

 termined personally to assist in pre- 

 paring the public mind for the im- 

 pending innovations. With this view 

 ho composed the " Golden Mirror," a 

 novel in Crebillon's manner, which, 

 under oriental names, satirizes Euro- 

 pean abuses. 'I'lie fourth chapter 

 sketches the idea of a beautiful reli- 

 gion, and may retain a classical value; 

 but the numerous allusions to transient 

 circumstances have lost their interest; 

 the praise prepared for Joseph the 

 Second, under the name of Tifan, has 

 been imperfectly earned, and the 

 reader finds not enough of vivacity in 

 the diction, or of action in the fable, 

 to prevent tedium. Of the political 

 good that was likely to result from the 

 liberal spirit of the Emperor Joseph, 

 Wieland had formed enthusiastic 

 hopes, and seems to have anticipated 

 a re-nuion of the Jewish, the Catholic, 

 and the Protestant, churches, on the 

 principles of the anti-supernaturalist 

 Unitarians. Some " i'ree-spirited 

 Dialogues" on the abolition of con- 

 vents were also issucti by \\ iehind ; 

 and a satire on the missionary spirit, 

 entitled " Travels of the Priest Abul- 

 fanaris to the Interior of Africa." 



In the neighbourhood of Erfurt 

 dwelt a German princess, Anna Ama- 

 lia, whohad been since 1738 the widow 

 of Ernest Augustus, duke of Saxe- 

 Weimar. Descended from the house 

 of Guelph, and intrusted by her hus- 

 band's will with the regency of the 

 state during the minority of the heir, 

 she enjoyed the dignity and patronage 

 of a sovereign ; and, like another 

 Zenobia, endeavoured to attract about 

 her court men of literary celebrity. 

 Her son, now sixteen years old, was 

 thought to require superior tutorage, 

 and she applied to her friend Baron 

 Dalberg, the governor of Erfurt, for 

 advice in the choice. He was in con- 

 sequence authorised to propose the 

 situation to Wieland, at an allowance 

 of one thousand dollars yearly for the 

 three years of expected service, and a 

 pension of six hundred dollars on re- 

 tirement. Wieland having signified 

 a disposition to accept the oiler, the 

 Dowager- 



