ACCOUNT of the GERMAN THEATRE. 155 



deepefl abftraclion of fcience with the eafe and pleafantry of 

 the lighteft poetry) and of Gellert, the La Fontaine of 

 Germany, that country has thrown into the circle of literature 

 a greater variety of productions in poetry and belles lettres than 

 any other nation of Europe. While other countries have been 

 applying themfelves chiefly to moral, phyfical and geographical 

 enquiries, Germany, remounting as it were to the fources of 

 ancient infpiration, has given to the world works of that crea- 

 tive fort, which are feldom produced in thofe later times, when 

 fancy and imagination give place to the fober certainties of 

 fcience and philofophy. Among thofe works of imagination, 

 it is fufEcient to mention feveral epic poems, one of which at 

 leaft, the Mejfiah of Klopftock^ is of the molt acknowledged and 

 univerfal reputation. 



The language of Germany, however, has not yet attained, 

 as thofe who know it inform us, that perfection and regularity 

 necefTary to (lamp the higheft value on the productions com- 

 pofed in it. Its currency, for the fame reafon, is far from 

 extenfive ; and therefore the original German works are fcarce 

 read at all beyond the circle of the empire. French and En- 

 glifh tranflators, particularly the former, have made up to 

 ftrangers the lofs which this would otherwife have occafioned ; 

 and few books of any merit now appear in Germany, that are 

 not republifhed in the French language by the bookfellers of 

 Paris. 



Of thefe, one of the moft remarkable, and, from its nature, 

 one of the moft interefting, is the Theatre Allemande, or a Col- 

 lection of the moft approved theatrical performances of Ger- 

 many, tranflated into French by MefTrs Fried el and de Bon- 

 neville, which is rivalled by another collection of the fame 

 kind, though not hitherto fo extenfive, by MefTrs Junker and 

 Liebault ; both tranflations, as far as one may judge from 

 intrinfic evidence, are executed with fidelity and ability. 



U 2 As 



