SCHERB 



SCHILLER 



207 



qualified himself for the ministry of the Protestant 

 Church. Discovering that preaching was not his 

 true function, he accepted^ the professorship of 

 Exegesis in the Oratory at Geneva (1845). In 

 Geneva he was closely associated with Vinet in 

 his advocacy of a severance between church and 

 state, expounding his views in La Reformation au 

 XIX* Si&cle, a journal of which Scherer himself 

 was editor. Gradually, however, he drifted away 

 from his early faith, and in 1850 he was finally 

 expelled from "the church. For the next ten years 

 he still lived in Geneva, mainly occupied in reli- 

 gious controversy. In 1860 he left Geneva for Paris, 

 where he at once found ample scope for his powers 

 in literary and political criticism. Besides being a 

 regular contributor to Le Temps, he also acted as 

 French correspondent to the Daily News, and sent 

 occasional communications to different American 

 papers. In 1871 he was elected representative for 

 the department of Oise-et-Marne, and attained 

 considerable distinction as a practical politician. 

 He died in Paris, 16th March 1889. 



By the solidity and extent of his knowledge, his 

 severely logical method, and the range of subjects 

 he has treated Scherer takes a high place among 

 modem literary critics. Hit distinctive character 

 as a critic lies in his combination of the qualities 

 of the trained thinker and scholar with a keen 

 snscejitiliility to the most diverse products of 

 creative effort. His defects appear in a certain 

 lack of elasticity and flexibility, partly due to liis 

 early training and partly to a naturally rigorous 

 cast of mind, which disposes him to undue severity 

 where he cannot sympathise. 



See Edmond Scherer, par Octave Greard of the French 

 Academy (1890), and the Introduction by .Mr Saintsbury 

 to Scherer' Eaayi on Enjlith. Literature (1891). 

 Scherer'a chief works are Milarutet de Critique Reliyieiue ; 

 fie F tat aetutl de Vfqline Reformat en France ; Alex- 

 andre Vinet et trt crit* ; Htuitet Critique* tur la Lit- 

 temturt Conttmparainf (9 vol.) ; Melan/e tfHittoire 

 Religieute ; Uelchiar tlrimm. 



Scherr, .JOIIANNKS, historian, novelist, and 

 writer of bmnorooi prose and verse, was lx>rn 3d 

 October 1817, at Rechberg in Swabia, studied at 

 Zurich and Tubingen, anil liecame a schoolmaster 

 at Stuttgart. In 1S44 he came to be known in act 

 and writing as a strong democrat, and in 1848 was 

 a member of the Wurteinherg diet. In 1849 he 

 fled to Swit/i-rland, where in 1860 he obtained a 

 post as lecturer in the Zurich Polytechnic. He 

 died 21st November 1886. He wrote a universal 

 history of literature, and histories of religion, of 

 English literature, of ( ierman manners and customs, 

 a whole series of romances and novels, and various 

 miscellaneous works in prose and verse. He was 

 vehement and one-sided in polemics ; and his lively 

 wit and caustic humour, though they give vivacity 

 to a very characteristic and original style, are 

 extravagant and overstrained. 



Srhery.o (Ital., 'jest,' 'sport'), in Music, a 

 term applied to a passage or movement of a lively 

 and s|K>rtive character, forming part of a musical 

 eoni|Hi.-.ition of some length, as a symphony, quar- 

 tett, or sonata. 



. a fishing-village and seaside 

 resort in South Holland, is situated on the North 

 Sea, about two miles N\V. of the Hague. Pop. 

 7980. It is visited by the aristocracy of Holland 

 for sea-bathing, there being an excellent ' bath- 

 house,' numerous villas, and hotels, and, during 

 the season, all the gaieties and amusements of a 

 fashionable watering-place. A range of sandhills 

 protects the village from the sea. The road from 

 the Hagne to Scheveningen passes beneath an 

 avenue of fine trees and woorled banks, with a 

 tramway for passengers and goods. Off Scheven- 



ingen the Dutch fleet was defeated, and its admiral 

 Tromp killed, by the British under Monk on 8th- 

 10th August 1653. 



Schiedam, a town in South Holland, 2J miles 

 W. of Rotterdam, and close to the Maas. It is 

 known the world over as the place where Hol- 

 lands gin is made, in some 300 distilleries. Large 

 numbers of pigs and cattle are fed on the refuse 

 grain in the surrounding country. There is a large 

 shipping trade, some shipbuilding, and cooperates, 

 malt-kilns, &c. Pop. (1870) 18,854; (1890)25.26(1. 



Schichullion. See PERTHSHIRE, and MASKE- 



l.VNK. 



Schiller, JOHANN CHRISTOPH FRIEDRICH, 

 German poet and dramatist, was the son of an 

 army surgeon, a man of deep religious feeling and 

 strict conscientiousness. His mother was a woman 

 of gentle disposition, true humility and piety, 

 and some poetic feeling. Fritz was born at 

 M.'irbach on N'eckar on 10th November 1759, and 

 inherited the distinguishing traits of both his 

 parents. He was brought up amid the vine-clad 

 iiills of Marbach, beneath the ancestral castle and 

 monastery of the Hohenstaufens at Lorch, and at 

 Ludwigshurg, the Versailles of the Dukes of 

 WurteiiilMTg. Ik-sides learning Latin and lln-ek 

 at the grammar -school of Ludwigsburg, Schiller 

 was carefully educated, especially in religious 

 matters, by his father, whose ambition it :i- lo 

 make him a pastor. But destiny in the person of 

 Duke Carl Eugen decreed otherwise. This Wiir- 

 tembergian imitator of the 'Grand Monarch,' who 

 set up to IM- the father of hi- people, established in 

 1773 a school at his castle of the Solitude, near 

 Ladwigcbttlg, for the purpose of training army 

 ollic-ers and servants for the public service. Cap- 

 tain Schiller, who was at that date superintendent 

 of the ducal forests and gardens around the 

 Solitude, was given to understand that the duke 

 wished to enrol his clever son Fritz amongst the 

 first pupils of lii* new institution. Accordingly 

 the boy turned to law instead of to theology ; and 

 at the duc-iil school (moved to Stuttgart in 1775) 

 was kept under a rigid discipline, partly military, 

 partly monastic. Almut 1776 Schiller, tired of 

 law, which he never liked, threw it up for medi- 

 cine, which he liked very little better. It was not 

 long after this that, principally through reading 

 Klopstock's Mesias, he l>ecame conscious of his 

 own poetic powers. From the first he conceived a 

 decided fancy for tragedy ; and now, instead of 

 studying medicine, he spent most of his time in 

 reading and writing )H>etry and tragedies, although 

 Imth occupations were strictly forbidden by the 

 duke. In philosophy also he took a more than 

 ordinary interest, and this taste remained with 

 him to the end of his days. The duke was very 

 proud of his clever prottqt, and on 14th December 

 177!*, in the presence of Goethe and Duke Carl 

 August of Weimar, was delighted to Ix-stow upon 

 him three medals for excellence in his medical 

 studies; for Schiller had at last worked hard to 

 qualify himself for leaving the Carl's School, and 

 so becoming master of himself. 



Exactly one year after Goethe's visit Schiller left 

 school, and was appointed surgeon to a \Vurtem- 

 berg regiment. One month later ( 13th January 

 1782) his play Die Rtiuber, begun in 1777, was put 

 on the stage at Mannheim. People took their 

 seats at noon, five hours before the performance 

 began, and the piece made a tremendous sensation 

 being full of the revolutionary sentiments with 

 which the air was charged previous to the outbreak 

 of the French Revolution. Young Schiller had 

 breathed the spirit of such ' storm and stress ' pro- 

 ductions as Goethe's Gotz, and the ideas of the 

 eccentric C. F. D. Schubart ; moreover, lie had 



