HISTORY OF LITERATURE 



(Hall 6, September 20, 4.15 p. m.) 



SPEAKERS: PROFESSOR JAMES A. HARRISON, University of Virginia. 

 PROFESSOR CHARLES M. GAYLEY, University of California. 



LITERARY VITALITIES 



BY JAMES ALBERT HARRISON 



[James Albert Harrison, Professor of Teutonic Languages, University of Virginia, 

 since 1895. b. August 21, 1848, Pass Christian, Mississippi. L.H.D. Columbia 

 University, 1886; LL.D. Washington and Lee University, 1896; LL.D. Tulane 

 University, 1904. Professor of Latin and Modern Languages, Randolph Macon 

 College, Virginia, 1871-76; Professor of English at Washington and Lee Uni- 

 versity, 1876-95; Associate Editor of the Century Dictionary, Standard Dic- 

 tionary, and Handy Political Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Member of the American 

 Philological Association, Modern Language Association, American Historical 

 Association. Author of A Group of Poets and their Haunts ; History of Spain ; 

 The Virginia Edition of Edgar Allan Poe's Works ; Life and Letters of Edgar 

 Allan Poe ; Life of George Washington; and other works.] 



Licht, Liebe, Leben. 



HERDER'S Epitaph. 



IN the land of Goethe the feet of the pilgrim traveler do not often 

 wander to a more charming spot than Weimar, still, as in Goethe's 

 day, the capital of an intellectual grand-duchy, nestling among the 

 green Gotha hills where the frolicsome Ilm shoots in and out of its bed 

 of silver and makes music in the ears of the poetic traveler; and in 

 this quaint and charming Old German town, redolent of Goethe and 

 Schiller and Wieland and Herder and Liszt, no spot is encircled with 

 pleasanter associations than the ancient Stadt-Kirche where Herder, 

 the teacher, friend, and pastor of Goethe, officiated for forty (?) years 

 and spoke forth his beautiful German to crowds of intelligent citizens, 

 eager to catch light from his illumined lips. 



One day the great thinker, speaker, author, the noble friend, the 

 eloquent interpreter of Die Stimmen der Volker, the venerable figure 

 beloved of the Weimar school-boys and girls, did not appear as usual 

 in the Kanzel at the right-hand end of the church. 



All over Weimar it was whispered, " Herder is dead! " 



Outside the church, in the modest Platz surrounding the house of 

 God, arose in after years a stately figure of the poet-critic holding in 

 his hand a scroll on which three words only were inscribed: 



Licht, Liebe, Leben. 



