LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1875. 



447 



Alpine story, " Rose zur Fluh," which ranks 

 high for the subtilty of its studies of character 

 and splendor of its descriptions of scenery. P. K. 

 Rosegger, a native of Styria, has lately proved 

 himself, in his " Schriften des Waldschulmeis- 

 ters," a masterly delineator of the home-life 

 of his countrymen. In a tragic tale, that takes 

 its wondrous title " Juschu " from the ncnve 

 heroine, who is, however, rendered clear- 

 sighted by fidelity, the eccentric but spirituel 

 Hans Hopfen has wasted his descriptive gifts 

 on the painful problem of a righteous but quite 

 accidental retribution. The romance of Fer- 

 dinand Kurnberger, " Der Haustyrann," is a 

 new proof of the splendid powers of portraiture 

 possessed by this suggestive and penetrating 

 yet odd writer, but also of his caprice. 



The transition from novels to dull science 

 may be aided by the mention of the creator 

 of romantic philosophy. The centenary of 

 the birth of Schelling (January 27, 1775) fell 

 in this year, and, like Fichte's centenary in 

 1862 and Hegel's in 1870, called forth a little 

 literature from friend and foe. The pantheist, 

 who in his genial youth was close to the bor- 

 ders of atheism, turned, it was well known, in 

 his old age into a monotheist who believed 

 in revelation. As when barely five-and-twenty 

 he expounded in his " Naturphilosophie " the 

 idea of a gradual development of the whole 

 organic and inorganic universe from an ori- 

 ginal opposition of an extending and contract- 

 ing force, all the ablest followers of the natural 

 sciences extol him, although he soon proved 

 false to his method, which was rather fanciful 

 than scientific. Of his " Philosophic der My- 

 thologie und Offenbarung " only a few pietists 

 have professed themselves adherents. His 

 most loyal disciple, Prof. Hubert Beckers, of 

 Munich, has in an academic oration gone 

 through the entire series of his speculations, 

 while others, such as Pfleiderer at Jena, H. von 

 Stein at Rostock, Robert Zimmermann at Vienna 

 (" Schelling's Philosophic der Kunst "), have 

 dwelt upon portions of his theories. His seo- 

 ond philosophy, by him styled "Positive," has 

 lately come again into notice, because Ed. von 

 Hartmann, the Philosopher of the Unconscious, 

 has laid hold of it, and declares it a means of 

 mediating between the views of Hegel and 

 Schopenhauer. Schelling sought by it to prop 

 up Christianity, and proclaimed the " Johan- 

 nine " form of Christianity the Religion of the 

 Future. His new follower, Hartmann, in his 

 most recent book, preaches " die Selbstzerset- 

 zung des Christen thums," and announces hu- 

 manistic pessimism as the Religion of the 

 Future. Johannes Huber, of Munich, one of 

 the leaders of the Old Catholic movement, and 

 a thinker who has been much influenced by 

 Schelling, has answered Hartmann from a 

 Christian standpoint in a pamphlet called 

 u Die religiose Frage." 



In Jena, where Schelling and Oken taught, 

 a new "Naturphilosophie," intended to take 

 the place of "the old," is preached by the 



genial apostle of Darwinism in Germany, the 

 fiery Ernst Haeckel, first in his too little known 

 "Generelle Morphologie," then in his most 

 popular if also his most superficial work, 

 "Natiirliche Schopfungsgeschichte," and late- 

 ly again in his most recent work, " Anthro- 

 pogenic ; " but, after all, as E. von Hartmann 

 has shown, this "Naturphilosophie" is but a 

 " Naturwissenschaft." The indefatigable op- 

 ponent of the theory of Natural Selection, 

 Adolf Bastian the ethnologist, has lately pub- 

 lished a volume, called " Schopfung oder Ent- 

 stehung," in which he both uncivilly and un- 

 justly calls the theory of the Descent of Man, 

 which Haeckel endeavors to establish upon 

 numerous embryological facts, an " anthropo- 

 gonische Missgeburt." Guelph and Ghibelline 

 could not be more bitter. 



The Nestor of German historians, Leopold 

 von Ranke, has published an essay upon the 

 " Ursprung und Beginn der Revolutionskriege 

 1791 und 1792." The cold objectivity of the 

 writer prevents him from showing either 

 hatred or favor to the object of his delineation. 

 The indefatigable veteran has, this time not 

 without some slight satisfaction at the attain- 

 ment of a long-sought end, remodeled his 

 "Neun Bucher Preussischer Geschichte," and 

 issued it under the title of " Genesis des Preus- 

 sischen Staats." The first book of the old 

 work has been extended into four. Now that 

 the aim of Frederick's policy has been at- 

 tained, and the Hapsburg dynasty driven out 

 of the " New Empire" toward Pesth, there is 

 redoubled interest in tracing the " genesis " of 

 the Prussian state, and in Arneth's work (the 

 seventh volume of which has appeared this 

 year) the "genesis" of the Austrian state 

 under Maria Theresa. We are thereby enabled 

 to see still more clearly than before that it was 

 impossible for the two rival powers to dwell 

 under one roof. Out of their unavoidable an- 

 tagonism have sprung the Austrian and the 

 Prussian schools of history which take oppo- 

 site views of nearly every event. 



Let us turn to a couple who, in spite of dis- 

 parity of age and different tastes, bore the 

 heavy trials of poverty and suffering with un- 

 shakable fidelity and self-sacrifice. The corre- 

 spondence of Schiller's sister, Christophine, 

 with her future husband, Reinwald, the libra- 

 rian of Meiningen, a man much older than 

 herself, in narrow circumstances and hypo- 

 chondriacal, and with her brother, the poet, 

 brings before us a truly German and most 

 noble woman. If she had not the high-soaring 

 imagination of her great brother, yet she had 

 fully as much moral dignity. Many of the 

 ladies who are celebrated in the annals of lit- 

 erature as members of the Weimar circle, in 

 which a woman's virtue was not always too 

 highly esteemed, might have learned from the 

 simple Swabian woman. The memory of one 

 of the most seductive stars of that ducal court, 

 the beautiful Corona Schroter, has been re- 

 vived by Robert Keil on the occasion of the 



