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INDIANA UNIVERSITY STUDIES 



and pronounces the ruins "vast, rather than tine." The journey 

 continued up the Neckar to Ludwigsberg. While standing on a 

 balcony of the palace of the Princes of Wurteniberg, the guide 

 pointed out the little hamlet of Marbach, the birthplace of Schil- 

 ler. Cooper seems to have been an admirer of the great poet. 

 He writes (Vol. II, p. 25 of First Ed., Part Second) : "Few men 

 can feel less of the interest that so commonly attaches to th? 

 habits, habitations and personal appearance of celebrated men, 

 than myself. The mere sight of a celebrity never creates any 

 sensation. Yet I do not remember a stronger conviction of the 

 superiority enjoyed by true over factitious greatness, than that 

 which flashed on my mind, when I was told this fact. That 

 sequestered hamlet rose in a moment to an importance that all 

 the appliances and soiwenirs of royalty could not give to the pal- 

 ace of Ludwigsberg. Poor Schiller ! In my eyes he is the Ger- 

 man genius of the age. Goethe has got around him one of those 

 factitious reputations that depend as much on gossip and tea 

 drinking as on a high order of genius; and he is fortunate in 

 being a coddled celebrity — for you must know there is a fashion 

 in this thing, that is quite independent of merit — while Schiller's 

 fame rests solely on its naked merits. My life for it, that it lasts 

 the longest, and will burn brightest in the end. The schools, and 

 a prevalent taste and the caprice of fashion can make Goethes in 

 dozens, at any time ; but God only creates such men as Schiller." 



From Ludwigsburg the party went to Stuttgart. At the inn 

 Cooper learned Avith regret that Sir Walter Scott had passed but 

 two days before. Beyond Tiibingen they saw the ruined castle 

 of the Hohenzollern, and then continued to Schaffhausen by way 

 of Tuttlingen. Finally they find themselves again in Switzer- 

 land and seem to be much pleased when they arrive in Zurich. It 

 so happened that Cooper's great forerunner in Indian fiction, 

 Chateaubriand, was in Zurich at the same time. Unfortunately, 

 the two great writers were destined not to meet. Concerning this 

 instance Cooper says (p. 40): "M. de Chateaubriand is in the 

 same hotel as ourselves, but it has never been my fortune to see 

 this distinguished witer to know him, even accidentally ; although 



I afterwards learned that, on one occasion, I had sat for two 



I I ours on a bench immediately before him, at a meeting of the 

 French Academy. My luck was no better now, for he went away 

 unseen, an hour after we arrived." 



When Cooper went to Europe in June, 1826, he took with 

 him an unfinished novel. It was finished in Paris and published 



