144 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



increased on account of the Fair. The prices of very many of 

 the plants appear rather higher than at the celebrated nurseries 

 of Van Houtte, at Ghent, which I had previously visited. 



Near by, there is a large place devoted to the production of 

 seeds for the market, where nearly everything that there is any 

 demand for is raised, while not far off, near the bank of the 

 river, stands the monument of the pious poet Klopstock, who 

 did so much to establish the permanence and character of his 

 beautiful German language. "If poetry had its saints," said 

 Madame de Stael, " Klopstock would certainly be reckoned 

 among the number." His poetry is associated with all that is 

 grand and majestic. Patriotism and religion were its living 

 elements. Homer, Pindar, Milton had no greater. Original, 

 lofty and grand in the treatment of the high themes which 

 filled his soul, he led his contemporaries and followers to a 

 higher aim for German literature, than servile imitation. Tlie 

 language into which he threw so much soul and power as to 

 reach the deepest recesses of the German heart, furnished a fit- 

 ting medium for the noblest works of Wieland and Lessing, so 

 soon to be adopted and perfected by Goethe and Schiller, the 

 greatest lights of their age and country ; but to none with so 

 much truth as to Klopstock can the title of Father of German 

 literature be applied. 



The Messiah of Klopstock probably did more than any thing 

 else to mould and form the language, because it first showed 

 its unbounded depth and power and fervency. The influence 

 of the poet was felt from one end of Germany to the other, his 

 singularly beautiful and touching odes reached the heart of the 

 people, and finally, when he was borne to his grave from this 

 commercial city, all classes sincerely lamented him ; the shops 

 were closed, the colors of the shipping were lowered, the bells 

 of the city were tolled, and funeral dirges were sounded by 

 trumpets from the steeples of the churches, while upon his bier 

 was laid a copy of his noblest work, the Messiah, in a wreath of 

 laurel, and the ceremony was closed by a choir of young girls 

 dressed in white strewuig his tomb with flowers and chanting 

 his Ode to Inamortality. 



Another point of interest was the Zoological Garden, con- 

 veniently located just at the outskirts of the city. Though 

 only about fifteen months old, it is extremely attractive and 



