BURGER, 



107 



toopher of Koningsberg, and read public lectures 



t 



Id of 

 a at- 



'.encfit 



rr.cdiciiu- ; aiiu he hau ll. fat 



length obtaining from the ; ^1 f;u uh 



degree of doctor. Two yc:u . atta 

 appoii.t. J an extraordinary j ; r of philosophy 



(hough without any sulary ; and, in the san.e year, 

 he published the second edition ui his 

 Comprehended, in addition to tlu: coi. tents of the pro- 

 LS edition, his llo/u-s LicJ, \vhic!i he appe:. 



considered as his best an?, most ll: x duc- 



tion, two pot-ms in commemoration of the fiftieth 

 anniversary of the foundation of the university of 

 Gottingcn, and several other picxes. 



In 1790, Burger most unadvisedly entered into a 

 third marriage with a Swabian girl, after a poetical 

 courtship, in which the first advances were made by 

 the lady. The marriage proved a mobt unhappy 

 one, and was attended with consequences which it is 

 believed contributed to shorten the existence of the 

 poet. 



li. 17.92, he was judicially divorced from his wife, 

 after having suffered a great deal of miseiy during 

 the latter period of the subsistence of the union. A 

 short while before the separation, Burger had caught 

 a cold, which produced a hoarseness that adhered to 

 him during the remainder of his life, and deprived 

 him of the faculty of speaking in public. His situ- 

 ation now became truly deplorable. Without any 

 certain means of subsistence, he was compelled to 

 earn a scanty and precarious livelihood, by translat- 

 ing out oi foreign languages for the booksellers. 

 Meanwhile, his strength rapidly declined. In the 

 month of October 1793, he was forced, by a feverish 

 complaint, to confine himself to bed. Symptoms of 

 consumption ensued; and, after a painful and linger- 

 ing illness, which he bore with becoming fortitude, 

 he expired on the 8th of June 179t, in the 47th 

 year of IK'S age. A small monument was erected to 

 his memory in Ulricas garden at Gottingen, a spot 

 which the poet was in the habit of frequenting at 

 early hours, and which is now used as a public pro- 

 menade and place of amusement. 



The moral character of Burger was far from being 

 a model of purity : yet, if his failings must be al- 

 lowed to have been numerous, his acknowledged vir- 

 tues may perhaps be allowed to soften the tone of 

 rigorous censure. His friends have borne ample tes- 

 timony to the benevolence, disinterestedness, and li- 

 berality of sentiment, which uniformly distinguished 

 him ; and have recorded instances of generosity and 

 truly Christian charity, which do him infinite ho- 

 nour. .An uncommon vivacity of feeling, and a want 

 of steady principle in the general conduct of life, 

 appear to have constituted the defective part of his 

 character ; and while the former frequently hurried 

 him into errors, which reason must have acknow- 



d and reprobated ; the 



uosity of pa* 



and irrriolutc mind, unable to reit the <! 



allurements that are presented to the scims, j . 



a was too much maik< d \>\ irrrg>, 



:!l not blai.J a 

 . tctts of rel;g:un and of 

 vii; 



poetical character and merits of Burger, 



we can il-.M-ll with n.orc unminglcd ; Al- 



;gh all of his numerous production* will by no 



'.isfy the : defl H \ taite ar. 



ticism ; yu there will he found, in gc 

 out his xvorks, a spirit of orign iJity, a c' 

 of poetical imagery, an ciu> a g Ct 



and a harmony of vers fication, Jicate tne 



i.o ordinary genius. Of these exc 



I'ctifru, his Ode 



his Holies UcJ, the two poems or 

 anniversary of the foundation of the University of 

 Gottingeu, and others, afford abundant examples. 

 His defects, which, however, are more than com* 

 pcn:-ated by hii acknowledged beauties, may be part- 

 ly asciibed to the peculiarities of his genius, and 

 partly flow, as a necessary consequence, from the 

 system he professed and pursued, in regard to poeti- 

 cal composition. He possessed more vigour and 

 originality, than chastencss and disciplined thought ; 

 ^ more boldness and luxuriancy of imagination, than 

 correctness of judgment or refinement of taste. 

 Like some writers cf poetry in our own count: 

 avowedly looked upon popularity as, at once, the 

 greatest proof of literary merit, and the highest re- 

 ward of poetical exertion ; and not that species of 

 popularity which is conferred upon an author by the 

 suffrages of the truly learned and discerning, but that 

 which is acquired by condescending to adopt the 

 feelings and prejudices, and even the very language, 

 of the illiterate and the vulgar. To this erroneous 

 system he too frequently sacrifices the rules of art, 

 and the feelings of propriety, and gives to his effu- 

 sions an occasional coarseness, which is apt to offend 

 a critical and refined reader. Some of his sannets 

 and smaller pieces, too, however beautiful in diction 

 and versification, betray too much of the individual 

 character, sensations, and sufferings of the author: 

 They not only exhibit pictures of individual and pe- 

 culiar dispositions and emotions of the mind, but 

 are, in fact, the offspring of these peculiar and tem- 

 porary feelings ; feelings too minute and particular 

 to be fully comprehended and enjoyed by ihe reader, 

 and often too violent to permit a free exercise o: 

 poet's powers. 



In one species of poetical composition, however, 

 Burger has few rivals. His ballads, . 

 nal or imitated, exhibit a richness in all the different 

 essential qualities of that kind of writing, which has 

 seldom been equalled, and perhaps never surpassed. 

 In simplicity, ^, and humour, accord- 



ing to the nature ot his subject, he always displays 

 powers as excellent as they are various. His attention 

 had been drawn, at an early stage of bis hurary ca- 

 reer, to ; Relieks," a collection which he 

 perused with delight, and of which he trai.sJated 

 some of the contents. Several of his ballads, how. 



