1800.] 
wreaths. To his friends, who here vifit 
him in his rural retreat, Wieland appears 
a true Jupiter Xenius; only he requires 
on their part a tafte tor and participationin 
his tranquil felicity. Nor is there any ne- 
ceffi'y for the gueft’s making empty com- 
pliments. It is a charming place. Wie- 
dand’s eftate is fituated ina tranquil pleafant 
valley. The garden, the poet’s favourite 
haunt, and, in its prefent form, moftly the 
wark of the embellifhing hand of its pof-. ~ 
feffor, is a mot delightful fpot. A long 
row of lime-trees leads to a very romantic 
grove, below which the neighbouring tlm 
with (oft murmuring haftens along. Here, 
during the fultry hours of the year, one 
generally finds the happy poet, furrounded | 
by the harmonious choirs of the birds, 
fitting under the fhadow of an umbrage- 
ous tree, with a book in his hand. Ho- 
race cannot have felt himfelf happier in his 
beloved much-fung Sabinum, than Wie- 
land is in his beloved unfung Offman- 
ftadt.—Wieland takes great pleafure in 
hufbandry: she confults for imftruction 
every good book on the fcience of rural 
economy ; and, as in himéelf, fo all around 
him we ‘Yee the ufeful and the beautiful 
joined in amicable union. 
The poet, however, thus happily faved 
from the ftorms of the world, is not fo 
wholly abforpt in the enjoyment of this 
rural felicity, as to have bidden adieu for 
ever to His ‘maternal Weimar, whom he 
firtt incircled’ with the laurel wreath, and 
to whofe nae he firft communicated poe- 
tic harmony. He from time to time vilits 
her operas and her theatres ; and, while 
liftening to the ftrains of a Mozart or to 
the fublime produétions of a Schiller, wil- 
lingly forgets for a few hours his beloved 
‘Tibur. At the time when Schiller’s Wal- 
lenftein was frft acted on the Weimar ftace, 
he remained eight days in that city.— 
Martini’s Una cofarara, likewife, whofe 
dulcet tones are above all pleafing to his 
ear, fometimes entice himback again with- 
an the walls he has left. The vicinity of 
Tinfurt, the ufual fummer-refidence of 
‘his old faithful friend, the duchefs Ama-: 
Jia, mother of the reigning duke of Wei- 
‘mar, often induces Wieland to exchange 
his beloved fhades for that facred vale of 
friendthip, there in confidential conver{a- 
tion, or at the exhilatating banquet torecall 
to recoile&tion the.cheartul hours of for- 
mer times. The moft lively picture of the 
manner of living at our patriarch-poet’s 
houfe is to be found in a book publifhed 
a few months ago, and entitl.d, Schatten- 
tifje meiner Erinnerungen von Offenbach, 
Weimar und Leipzig, Levprig, Gratt, 1800; 
Monrauxy Mac. No, 66, 
Account of Weeland. 
433 
of which a tranflation would undoubtedly 
be received with approbation by the Eng- 
lith public. Thefe tketches were written 
by the fexagenary venerable German au- 
thorels, Sophia La Roche, Wieland’s oldeft 
friend and beloved, who in the fummer of 
1799 paid hima vilit at Offmanfadt ; and 
in that publication eloquently defcribes the 
{cenes of her happy meeting and fojourn « 
ment with the friend of her youth. 
Wieland was boro at Biberach, a {mall 
imperial {ree city in the circle of Suabia, 
where his father was chief Calvinift pa@or. 
In his youth he was feized with religious 
enthufiafm ; av almof unavoidable confe- 
guence of the manner of his education and 
of the extreme livelinefS of his imagina- 
tion. His filial affection for his bigoted 
mother, who followed him to Weimar, 
kept him probably longer in this crifis, 
than otherwife would have happened.— 
Some pious edifying burtls of this holy en- 
thufiafin in the church-ityle have been pre- 
ferved by him as memorials of his then 
temper of mind, and may now be read 
inthe Supplements to his Works: At 
that time the pious poet Bodmer with joy 
enlifted the young enthufiaft under his bi- 
blico-poetic banner, and invited him into 
Switzerland. But foon his powerful ge- 
nius irrefiftibly feized him, and raifed him 
by rapid and fplendid flights above the 
mifty horizon of his mafter. Bodmer now 
with bitter affliftion, pronounced Wie- 
Janda failen angel. Our poct began his 
Poem on the Nature of Things in his fe- 
venteenth year. His native city, Biberach, 
honoured-him by appointing him adireétor 
of the chancery: but he feon became tired 
of this unpoetic ofice. It was the old 
Hamburg poet Brokus, who gave the firt 
impulfe of poetic infpiration to Wieland, 
and, as I am told, likewife to Klopftock. 
In the library of Offmanftadt an honour- 
able-place is aifigned to this Adam of ‘Ger- 
man poetry, and Wieland ftill points him 
out to his vifitors with grateful refpe&. 
Two perfons, who are moft intimately con- 
nected with the hiltory of Wieland’s youth, 
hadthe greateft mfuence in completely de- 
veloping and pertectionating the powers of 
his mind. Julia Bondely, a beautiful 
lady of Bern, of one of the firftt families of 
that city, became the object of his love 
during his refidence of five years in Swit- 
zerland : and, herfelf nurtured with the 
{weeteft flofcules of French and Italian 
poets and bels-efprits, her honeyed mouth 
breathed into the foul of the fiery youth a 
{trong inclination towards thele heroes of 
literature, and firt expelled religious en- 
thufiafm from his breaft. What Julia 
aS Bencely 
