Nations lately become Literary. 529 



thern provinces, have for some time been, and are 

 evenj day becoming more distinguished. 



In short, during the eighteenth century Ger- 

 many has risen from pedantry and dulness to a 

 high character, for genius and refined accomplish- 

 ments in the literary world. Instead of present- 

 ing few and comparatively uninteresting publica- 

 tions, as was the case an hundred years ago, she 

 has become by far the most prolific nation on 

 earth in every species of literary production. She 

 gives birth annually to double the number of pub- 

 lications that appear in France, and to nearly 

 treble the number that are issued in Great-Britain 

 and Ireland. 6 Instead of being despised as she 

 was at the beginning of the century for furnish- 

 ing scarcely any other than hewers of wood and 

 drawers of water to the republic of letters^ she 

 has produced, within the last fifty years, histo- 

 rians, poets and dramatists, whose writings evince 

 that judgment, acuteness, imagination, elegant 

 taste, and every qualification for fine writing, 

 abound among her people. In fact, she has in 

 several respects pushed her literary progress to a 

 degree hitherto attained by no other nation, and 

 affords a striking example of the influence of lite- 

 rature on national character. 



But, while the progress of Germany in liberal 

 knowledge, the industry of her authors, the enter- 



h The whole population of Germany is not supposed to exceed thirty 

 millions. In the Austrian dominions the class of peasants are mostly serfs, 

 or predial slaves, of which it is probable few are able to read. In the 

 other provinces, especially Suabia, Westphalia, and the Upper Rhine, the 

 number must be very great of those who, if they have been taught to read 

 at all, never devote any part of their attention to books. Not more than 

 ten millions of the thirty are of the reading age ; and it is a very liberal 

 calculation to suppose that, of these ten millions, not more than one-tentlr 

 are in the habit of purchasing and perusing books. Hence, allowing the 

 number of authors by profession to be fifteen thousand, which is said by 

 some to be much below the real number, it appears that, for every sixty- 

 six readers, there is one who lives by the trade of authorship. See New- 

 York Month. Mag. vol. ii. p. 9. 



VOL. IT. 2U" 



