THE GERMAN PLAY AT VENICE* gfg 



gave him as good an idea of it as could be done in few 

 words. 



The wonder of the curious inquirer now rofe to in 

 higheft pitch. How ufeful mull: this be in war 3 ex- 

 claimed he. How ferviceable in taking ftrong. places! 

 How quickly decinve in battle ! Oh, I pray thee., ieM 

 me : Who invented it ? 



Who elfe but a German ! 



The fpirit — for why fhould we any longer conceal, 

 that it was a fpirit } — here ftarted three fteps back- 

 wards. 



Always German, and again a German ! — Whence m 

 all the world, did you come by fo much wifdom J ~r 

 Know, that as fure as I rtand here before thee, I wss 

 once, to mention it without vanity, the fpirit of Ci- 

 cero, the wifeft man of his times, the father ,of iris 

 country, the conqueror in peace, the — but who -does 

 not know me ? Rather let me preferve the fame 4x10- 

 defty, as a fpirit, which was my ornament in life- Bust 

 in my times, to fpeak honeftly, thy countrymen were 

 the ftupideft. fet of people that ever the fun fkoixe 

 upon : rude and even favage, defritute of agriculture 

 and arts, totally ignorant of all fciences, for ev:®r 

 hunting, perpetually at war, wrapped up in the 

 of beafts, and they themfelves no better than brutes 

 .— Yet to all appearance you mull have undergone a 

 great alteration lince. — When I now reflect -or my&n- 

 tient fellow-citizens, according to the vafr. progrefs 

 they had made beyond you ; great both in peace and 

 war ; orators, poets, hiftorians, lords of half the 

 world, and the firft nation under the fun. — Oh, for 

 certain, they mull: by this time border on divine 



