No. 4.] THE ETHICS OF BOOKS. 127 



cept his version ; for, if he sees a beggar, he is only a beg- 

 gar, and not a prince in disguise. 



The realistic movement was thought to have done much 

 for Germany at the time when she seemed incapable of ris- 

 ing above her condition. She had waded through centuries 

 of blood, fought for religion and recognition among the 

 nations, sacrificed the lives of thousands of her people for 

 the unification of the whole. Although successful in poli- 

 tics, the condition of the individual had not improved. All 

 the learned men began to analyze life, and all came to the 

 same conclusion. They must strike at the root of the mat- 

 ter. They tried to find the root, but could not. They 

 became depressed, and so expressed themselves in their 

 literature. At the time when she stood highest, she turned 

 to pessimism, or the assumption that the worst will happen, 

 and we cannot help it. Yet men kept thinking. All at 

 once they turned to realism. Idealism with Goethe at its 

 head was discarded. They said that the roots of the tree 

 of society rested in the soil of a poisonous lie. They began 

 to encourage the masses by showing them that there was a 

 chance for every one on higher ground ; that nobody in 

 real life ever was or could be like the ideals set before 

 them ; that in real life no one acts or speaks like those in 

 romance, neither when they are happy nor angry, not even 

 when they are in love, unless they are cranks. Those 

 new novels had for their subjects the stirring events of the 

 times, and were peopled with real peasants. The work 

 struck a powerful chord in the heart of the German people. 

 The tree began to feel the influence of the soil called truth, 

 and grew and throve. 



The eternal law of nature is the spirit of the realist. 

 Robert Southey said there was another class of writers, 

 called the " Satanic school," of which Lord Byron was the 

 leader. There was reason for this, for Lord Byron had 

 created in the minds of many an association of intellectual 

 power with moral depravity. The ethics drawn from his 

 poetry, says another noted writer, seemed to centre in two 

 great commandments: "Hate your neighbor; bo sure to 

 love your neighbor's wife." 



