

WEIMAR AND JENA. 191 



liar feelings and of the mode of thought characteristic of a 

 poet, concerning whom he sings in dithyrambic inspiration : 



His soul by the gods was so gifted with light, 



That the world in its clearness lies imaged ; 



He beholds in this mirror whate'er has transpired, 



And what in the future lies buried ; 



He sat with the gods when in council convened, 



And witnessed the secrets of Nature unscreened. 1 



But easy as it may be to the poet to fathom the mysteries of 

 nature, it is not by any means so easy to the scientific investi- 

 gator. These are by no means the only verses in Schiller's 

 poems in which the characteristic tone of his mind found 

 expression whence we may found an explanation of his judg- 

 ment of Humboldt. His poetic idealism is more readily 

 affected by the imaginative contemplation of nature than by the 

 study of severe science. By the former process, nature seems 

 to be animated by creative beings, full of grace and beauty, 

 while science on the contrary scares away these heavenly crea- 

 tions, disenchants the world, and reduces everything to number 

 and law, establishes restrictions, and removes all superfluities. 

 The most pointed expression to this feeling is given in the 

 poem entitled ' Gotter Griechenlands.' 



And yet he failed himself to realise complete satisfaction in 

 the idealistic views of nature held by the Greeks. At the 

 close of his treatise Ueber naive und sentimentale Dichtung,' 

 he remarks : ' It cannot fail to excite our wonder that so little 

 trace is to be found among the Greeks of the sentimental 

 interest with which we moderns are accustomed to invest 

 natural scenes and the features of nature. The ancient Greek is 

 certainly in the highest degree accurate, truthful, and circum- 

 stantial in his description of nature, but evinces no more heart- 

 felt emotion than would be called forth by the description of 

 a garment, a shield, or a piece of armour. Nature seems more 



1 Ihm gaben die Gb'tter das reine Gemiith, 

 Wo die Welt sich, die ewige, spiegelt ; 

 Er hat alles gesehn, was auf Erden geschieht, 

 Und was uns die Zulmnft versiegelt ; 

 Er sass in der G otter uraltestem Rath 

 Und behorchte der Binge geheimste Saat.' 



