WIELAND. 



bergen, and lived a year and a half with a relation 

 in Erfurt, who prepared him for the university. In 

 1750, he returned to his native city, where he fell 

 in love with Sophia von Guttermann. In the au- 

 tumn of 1750, he went, against his inclination, to 

 the university of Tiibingen, to study law. He con- 

 tinued to study the literature of his own and foreign 

 countries, and wrote, in 1751, his Ten Moral Let- 

 ters, addressed to Sophia, which met with a very 

 favourable reception. He also wrote, at this time, 

 a didactic poem called Anti-Ovid, an unimportant 

 production. In 1752, he returned to Biberach, 

 and then went to Zurich as a literary companion to 

 Bodmer. Here he read the works of the authors 

 who then gave a new impulse to German litera- 

 ture Hagedorn, Gleim, Haller, Schlegel, Gellert, 

 Klopstock, Sulzer, and others. Zurich itself con- 

 tained several distinguished authors. The example 

 of Bodmer, a hasty writer, had much influence on 

 his habits of composition at this time, as appears 

 from the number of his productions at this period. 

 In 1756, the seven years' war (q. v.) broke out. 

 Wieland was inspired by the deeds of Frederic the 

 great, and intended to write a poem, exhibiting 

 the ideal of a hero, for which purpose he chose the 

 story of Cyrus. The first five cantos appeared in 

 1757, and the second edition of them in 1759: but 

 the poem remained unfinished. After some unsuc- 

 cessful attempts in dramatic poetry, he again turned 

 his talent to the more congenial field of Grecian 

 story, and published Araspes and Panthea, an epi- 

 sode from the Cyropaedia of Xenophon. In 1754, 

 he left Bodmer's house, became a tutor, and, in 

 1760, returned to his native town. Various cir- 

 cumstances, among others that of finding the object 

 of his early love married, made him dissatisfied 

 with Biberach. He now undertook a task not 

 very congenial to his previous habits, accustomed 

 as he was to the study of Greek, Roman, and I 

 French literature, and naturally inclined to light j 

 and gay subjects. He translated twenty-eight or 

 Shakspeare's plays, (176268, 8 vols.) Eschen- 

 burg afterwards added the fourteen remaining ones. 

 Wieland soon found a home in the house of count 

 Stadion, who had been minister of the elector of 

 Mayeuce, was a man of considerable knowledge, 

 and an enemy to all kinds of fanaticism. His in- 

 tercourse with this new friend produced a decided 

 change in his character. He had previously been 

 prone to religious mysticism, but exhibited, in his 

 subsequent productions, tendencies of an opposite 

 character. Count Stadion's library was particular- 

 ly rich in French and English literature, and con- 

 tributed not a little to this change of sentiment in 

 Wieland. He has. often been reproached with a 

 predilection for subjects of a voluptuous character, 

 in his subsequent works. It is impossible to excul- 

 pate him entirely from this charge ; but it ought 

 to be stated that his own life was wholly free from 

 the stain of licentiousness. The first production 

 of his bearing the impression of Greco-Gallic sen- 

 suality, was the tale of Nadine, which he himself 

 calls a composition in Prior's manner. This was 

 followed, in 1764, by the Adventures of Don Sylvio 

 of Rosalva, or the Victory of Nature over Fanati- 

 cism. In this, Don Quixote was his model ; but 

 the work of Wieland was far inferior to that of 

 Cervantes in plan and execution. In 1766 and 

 1767, appeared his Agathon, which established his 

 reputation. It had .occupied him long, and will 

 long preserve his memory. Love continually em- | 

 ployed his thoughts, and many fragments of poems , 



by him, on this subject, exist ; but his chief work 

 devoted to it is Musarion (1768), a production 

 distinguished for grace, ease, and harmony, which 

 he himself calls a philosophy of the graces. In 

 1770, he wrote the Graces ; and the new Amadis, 

 in 1771, a poem which celebrates the triumph of 

 intellectual over mere physical beauty. The poet 

 treated this subject again, in the latter part of his 

 life, in his Crates and Hipparchia. In 1765, Wie- 

 land married, and, in 1769, was appointed professor 

 primaries of philosophy at the university of Erfurt. 

 From this time, he no longer occupied himself ex- 

 clusively with amatory poetry. In his Cupid Ac- 

 cused, he defends this kind of poetry ; and in the 

 Dialogues of Diogenes of Sinope (1770), he gave 

 a general vindication of his philosophical views. 

 Under the title Contributions to the Secret His- 

 tory of the Human Understanding and Heart, from 

 the Archives of Nature (1770), he wrote against 

 Rousseau. The many improvements and noble plans 

 of Joseph II. of Austria gave occasion, in 1772, to 

 his Golden Mirror. In 1772, he went to Weimar, 

 in consequence of an invitation from the duchess 

 Anna Amalia of Weimar, to superintend the edu- 

 cation of the two princes, her sons. Here he had 

 leisure for literature ; and a moderate salary, and 

 the promise of a pension for life, set him at ease. 

 He now turned his attention to dramatic poetry, 

 and wrote his Choice of Hercules, and his Alceste. 

 He also undertook the superintendence of the Ger- 

 man Mercury, a monthly journal, which he con- 

 tinued to edit to the end of his life. His views, as 

 exhibited in this journal, showed too much of the 

 narrow conventional spirit of French criticism, and 

 he was, therefore, attacked by Gothe and Herder. 

 The first wrote a satire against, him under the title 

 of Gods, Heroes, and Wieland, which Wieland an- 

 swered with his characteristic mildness. Gothe 

 and Herder were soon drawn to Weimar, where the 

 duchess Amalia formed a galaxy of talent and ge- 

 nius, such as has seldom been witnessed. In com- 

 pany with them, Wieland here laboured with great 

 activity for more than twenty years. His philoso- 

 phy breathes the spirit of Socrates, sometimes with 

 a mixture of that of Aristippus. He has enriched 

 German literature with works which have made 

 known to his countrymen the merits of the French 

 and English writers. His historical productions do 

 not constitute large works, but they please by the 

 lively imagination, knowledge of languages, sound 

 judgment, and benevolent spirit which they display. 

 These graver occupations did not diminish his poe- 

 tical fertility, which appeared to great advantage in 

 his History of the Abderites (1773), a delightful 

 work, in which the muse of wisdom appears dis- 

 guised in the garments of satire. He also wrote 

 tales, partly after foreign originals, partly from his 

 own invention. But Oberon, a romantic epic, is 

 the most successful of his larger works, though the 

 tone and the form are both liable to censure. In 

 addition to his original works, Wieland prepared 

 translations of Horace and Lucian ; and, though 

 the scholar will often meet with paraphrases which 

 he may not like, these translations have been of 

 much service to the public at large. Wieland him- 

 self declared his Letters and Commentaries on Ho- 

 race those of his works on which he placed the 

 greatest value, and from which his head, heart, 

 taste, conceptions, and character could be best 

 known. From his constant study of Lucian ori- 

 ginated (1791), an original work, Peregrinus Pro- 

 teus, to which his Agathodaemon may be considered 



