PART II. GERMAN POETEY. 



THE same inevitable forces out of which arose the character of 

 French Poetry are seen to be working, though under very different 

 circumstances, to determine the character of German Poetry; and it is 

 this law, or idea of law, in Germany wich I propose to make the sub- 

 ject of my present lecture. First of all, let us consider precisely the 

 nature of the facts with which we have to deal. It cannot be said that 

 Germany has expressed the idea of the Universal, either in the crea- 

 tive departments of Poetry or in the plastic Arts, with as much char- 

 acter as Italy, England, France, or even Spain. The Germans have 

 produced no romantic epic of universal European fame like the 

 Orlando Furioso, no classic epic that can be named with Paradise 

 Lost; no romance like Don Quixote; no tragic drama comparable, I 

 do not say with the tragedies of Shakespeare, but even with those of 

 C'orneille and Racine; no comic drama approaching within visible 

 distance of that of Moliere. In painting, two German names alone 

 are household words, Holbein and Albert Dlirer. To compensate for 

 these deficiencies, the Germans are supreme in Music: Handel, Mozart, 

 and Beethoven form a triumvirate whom the united musicians of the 

 rest of Europe would challenge in vain. From Germany have come 

 the great men of contemplation in Religion, Philosophy, and Criticism 

 - Luther, Kant, Lessing. And in lyric poetry that department of 

 the art which is most akin to Music their compositions (I am 

 thinking of the ballads of Schiller and IT bland, of Faust, and of 

 IIYim-'s Songs) have roused emotions in the hearts of men untouched 

 by the lyric poetry of any other nation, with the possible exception of 

 the poetry of Byron. 



I think that these facts are precisely the results that might be 

 expected to follow from the genius of the German character, and 

 the course of German history. German genius, at least as manifested 

 outwardly up to quite modern times, has been rather contemplative 

 than practical. The German has or had two generations ago 

 the same strange contrasts in his character as are noted by Tacitus: 

 the love of arms joined with the tendency to domestic indolence; the 

 passion for intellectual liberty, accompanying the neglect of the arts 

 of society ; energy in war, followed by reverie in peace. In peace, says 

 the practical Roman historian, " ipsi hebent, mira naturae diversitate, 

 cum idem sic ament inertiam et oderint quietem." Something of this 



