S£2 Nations lately become Literary. 



which Robertson, Hume, and Gibbon, are so 

 generall) r celebrated. 



The Germans exceed all the rest of the world 

 in the number and excellence of their Statistical 

 histories. The first work published under this 

 denomination, and in a scientific form, was about 

 the middle of the century, by Professor Achen- 

 wall, of Gottingen, who is considered as the fa- 

 ther of Statistics. Since that time many others 

 have made publications of a similar nature, but 

 of superior excellence. Among these Walch, 



&EINHARD, BAUMAN, ToZE, ReMER, MeUSEL, 



and Sprengel, are entitled to particular notice. 



But there is no species of composition with re- 

 spect to which a greater improvement has been 

 made in Germany, during the last age, than in 

 that of Fictitious History. The only Romances 

 or Novels which had appeared in that country, at 

 the beginning of the century, were wretched imi- 

 tations, wmich attract attention at present only as 

 monuments of bad taste. About the year 1746, 

 Gellert made the first attempt to introduce a dif- 

 ferent and more correct model of fictitious history. 

 The appearance of his Schwedische Grqfin, pub- 

 lished in that year, forms a new era in this depart- 

 ment of German literature. The novels published 

 in Germany, from 1746 to 1754, were, for the 

 most part, translations from the English and French 

 languages. In 1754 Gesner's pastoral romance, 

 entitled Daph?iis, appeared; excited much atten- 

 tion, and formed a second epocha in the progress of 

 this kind of composition. A few years afterwards 

 the Teutchen Grandison of Musaus, and the Aga- 

 than of Wieland, gave another, and a still more 

 correct turn to the German taste in novel writing. 

 Besides these, the various works of Goethe, Schil- 

 ler, Nicholai, Klinger, Herder, Richter, and 

 many others, deserve to be enumerated among the 



