LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1873. 



431 



will recall to the memory of the world of 

 readers many gems of imaginative writing. 



I should till several columns were I merely 

 to give the titles of the almost unlimited num- 

 ber of novels of all sorts. However, a small 

 psychological study called "Marianne," by 

 Ferdinand von Saar, an author who writes too 

 little, deserves notice for masterly analysis of 

 character and classical simplicity of style. It 

 is a solitary pearl in the flood of fiction. 



My notice of the biographical literature of 

 the year, which has been unusually large, may 

 properly bo placed here. As written by a band 

 of Berlin tatante, there is, to be sure, little that 

 is romantic about the career of Alexander von 

 Huinboldt, even in a little youthful love-affair, 

 to which only a cautious allusion is made. 

 There is all the more in the life of the late 

 he is at last really dead Prince Puckler- 

 Muskan, which the well-known Ludmilla As- 

 sing has written without the slightest discre- 

 tion. The two travelers form a curious con- 

 trast. 



The relations between Humboldt and the 

 Prussian court, and especially the late Fried- 

 rich Wilhelm IV., have, as everybody knows, 

 been inconsiderately revealed by Varnhagen's 

 I )iaries. The compilers of his biography throw 

 but scanty light on them. On the contrary, 

 there could hardly be a more beautiful monu- 

 ment to the memory of the gifted but misun- 

 derstood monarch than the " Selections from 

 the Correspondence of Friedrich Wilhelm IV. 

 and the Chevalier Bunsen," edited by the vet- 

 eran Leopold Ranke The friendship between 

 the then absolute ruler of a great kingdom and 

 the bouryeoa atant who was his servant and 

 subject, might rightly be called unprecedented. 

 After the publication of these intimate and 

 confidential letters, it would be unjust to doubt 

 that the King had a high idea of his duty as a 

 Protestant ruler of Church and State. Bun- 

 sen, whose independence is brought out into 

 great prominence by the hasty outbursts of the 

 Kin;:, strove vainly to combat his master's dis- 

 like to a constitution, and, at last, he himself 

 fell under the suspicion of "Liberalism." 



Among the other letters that have been given 

 to the world this year, the most noticeable 

 are the ' Selections from Goethe's Letters on 

 Scientific Subjects," published by Prof. Bra- 

 tranek, under the directions of Goethe's heirs, 

 and the "Life and Letters of the Painter Wil- 

 helm Tischbein," who also had to do with the 

 Wi iinar circle, and are edited by Fr. von Alten. 

 It is well known that Goethe was a precursor 

 of Mr. Darwin ; but the reader will learn with 

 surprise from his letters to Goethe and the 

 Duchess Amalie of Wiemar that Tischbein 

 made use of his stay at Naples to study the 

 descent of marine animals, and that his results 

 came curiously near the modern theory of 

 Natural Selection. The literary remains of 

 Fr. Forster, edited by H. Kletke, is especially 

 interesting from the youthful recollections 

 contained in it of the mother of the poet 



Theodor Koerncr, Minna Koerner (nee Stock), 

 of Goethe's visits when a student at Leipsic 

 to her father's house, and Schiller's stay in her 

 own house at Dresden. 



Of the biographies which form a contribu- 

 tion to political history, Heltert's " Life of the 

 Empress Maria Lnise," the widow of Napo- 

 leon, is most remarkable from the novelty of 

 its authorities, and, for an Austrian statesman, 

 impartial handling. The change of affairs in 

 Austria has had this beneficial effect : that the 

 documents relating to modern history, which 

 in Metternich's time were jealously guarded, 

 are now thrown open without hiuderance to 

 inspection. The publication of the letters of 

 the imperial house preserved in the archives, 

 begun by Arneth, the distinguished historian 

 of Maria Theresa, has been followed up by 

 the edition of the correspondence of the two 

 Emperors, Joseph II. and Leopold, with the 

 Chancellor Kaunitz, superintended by A. Beer. 



Of histories, properly so called, those of the 

 last war are naturally most sought after by 

 the public. We must be satisfied if the tri- 

 nmphs of historical learning and historical art, 

 like the collected issue of Ranke's works that 

 is slowly advancing toward completion, and 

 the " History of the City of Rome," by Ferdi- 

 nand Gregorovins, which has at last been fin- 

 ished, attract the attention of a small but not 

 the worst part of the world of readers. The 

 latter book is no more remarkable for the co- 

 piousness of its matter than the charm of its 

 manner. Among books relating to the war, 

 the still unfinished work of the Prussian Gen- 

 eral Staff deserves the first place for correct- 

 ness and objectivity, but certainly not for 

 style. The defense of Metz is related in a 

 book by Firks, small, but full of information. 

 The behavior of the Prussian Guards from 

 Metz to Paris is the subject of a somewhat 

 highly-colored narrative by Rudolf Lindau, 

 who writes as an eye-witness, and was present 

 at the headquarters. 



To the history of civilization belongs the 

 attempt at a "History of the Origin of Man- 

 kind " by Otto Caspari, which the author, nn- 

 like Mr. Tylor, seeks to base on the science of 

 Racial Psychology, founded in Germany by 

 Steinthal and Lazarus. Sketches of modern 

 civilization are contained in the "Pictures 

 from the Intellectual Life of Our Day," by 

 Julian Schmidt. Akin to these, half sketches 

 of civilization, half books of travel, are the 

 pleasant pages of Julius Rodenberg, "From 

 England," which have already found an Eng- 

 lish translator, and the same writer's "Vaca- 

 tion Journeys through German and Bohemian 

 Towns." 



The number of philosophical works which 

 of late years has grown small, rose from 153 

 in 1871, to 180 in 1872. It is to Hartmann's 

 " Philosophy of the Unknown " that we owe 

 this essential service. Of works of considera- 

 ble extent and independent scientific impor- 

 tance, I may mention the "Investigations in 



