GERMANY. 445 



many began to brighten. Leibnitz and Wolff opened the way to a 

 better philosophy than had hitherto prevailed. Gottsched, an author 

 and professor at Leipsic, who was greatly honoured by Frederick II S 

 king 01 Prussia, introduced a better taste of writing, by publishing a 

 German grammar, and by instituting a literary society for publishing 

 and restoring to its purity the German language, and by promoting 

 the study of the belles Iettres. We may consider this as the epocha 

 from which the Germans began to write with elegance in their own 

 language upon learned subjects, and to free themselves, in a con- 

 siderable degree, from that verboseness and pedantry by which they 

 had been characterised. About this time, several young men in the 

 university of Leipsic, and other parts of Lower Germany, united in. 

 publishing some periodical works, calculated for the general enter- 

 tainment of persons of literary taste. Some of these gentlemen after- 

 wards became eminent authors ; and their works are held in Germany 

 in high estimation. 



The style of preaching among the German divines also now under- 

 went a considerable change. They began to translate the best English 

 and French sermons, particularly those of Tillotson, Sherlock, Saurin, 

 Bourdaloue, and others. They improved by these models ; and Mo- 

 sheim, Spalding, Zollikofer, and others, have published sermons 

 which would do credit to any country ; although they still retain too 

 much of that prolixity for which German divines and commentators 

 have been so much censured. Nor can it be denied, that great num- 

 bers of the German preachers, even in large and opulent towns, are- 

 still too much distinguished by vulgar language, absurd opinions, and 

 an inattention to the dictates of reason and good sense. 



Some of the English periodical writings, such as the Spectator, 

 Tatler, and Guardian, being translated into the German language, 

 excited great emulation among the writers of that country, and a 

 number of periodical papers appeared, of various merit. One of the 

 nrst and best was published at Hamburg, under the title of "The 

 Patriot ;" in which Dr. Thomas, the late bishop of Salisbury, was con- 

 cerned ; he being at that time chaplain to the British factory at Ham- 

 burg, and a considerable master of the German language. The late 

 professor Gillert, who is one of the most elegant of the German 

 authors, and one of the most esteemed, has greatly contributed to the 

 improvement of their taste. His way of writing is particularly adapt- 

 ed to touch the heart, and to inspire sentiments of morality and piety. 

 His fables and narrations, written in German verse, his letters, and his 

 moral romances, are so much read in Germany, that even many of the 

 ladies have them all by heart. His comedies are also very popular ; 

 '.hough they are rather too sentimental, and better adapted for the 

 doset than for the stage. 



Haller the famous physician, Hagedorn, Uz, Croneigh, Lessing, 

 Oleim, Gerstenberger, Kleist, Klopstock, Ramler, Zacarie, Weiland, 

 and others, have excelled in poetry. Schlegel, Cronegh, Lessing, 

 Weiland, Weise, Schiller, and Kotzebue, have acquired fame by their 

 dramatic writings. Rabener has by his satirical works, immortalised 

 his name among the Germans ; though some of his pieces are of too 

 local a nature, and too much confined to German customs, manners, 

 and characters, to be read with any high degree of pleasure by per- 

 sons of other nations. Gesner, whose Idyls and Death of Abel have 

 been translated into the English language, and favourably received, 

 is better known to an English reader. 



