| Retrofpee? af German Literature Michaelmas-fair, i801. 609 
der Philofophis. am Ende des 18 Jahrhun- 
derts,"’ in whith, on the one fide, a 
Paper againft Fichte, by JacoOBi, parti- 
cularly diltingnifhes itfelf, and on the 
other HuGex’s ** Difference between the 
Fichtian and Schellingian Syitems of Phi- 
ofophy.”’ . Every one had hitherto be- 
lieved, and Fitche himfelf {eemed to be- 
lieve, that Scheliing, of Jena, built his 
idealiftical Temple of Nature - on the 
foundation of Fichte’s dostrine of {cience. 
But Schelling now brings trom. his na- 
tive place to Jena a champion, by whom 
he announces to the aftonifhed public how 
much even Fichte is beneath him. So 
rapidly does infallibility here pafs away ! 
Of the diligent and learned MELLIN’s 
‘© Encyclopadifches ‘Worterbuch,” and 
*¢ Marginalien,” continuations have ap- 
peared, which wiil be very acceptable to 
every admirer of Kant’s writings. 
Scaunz’s * Kritik der Theoretifchen 
Philofophie’’-(2 parts, Bohn, Hamburg) 
will probably give great offence to the 
zealous Kantians. 
PuiLo.Locy. As 
The fecond volume of the Buutr’s 
new edition of “* Aratus,”” which we had 
been exp<éting for feveral years paft, has 
at length made its appearance. 
SCHAUBACH, of Meiningen, already ad- 
vantageoully known by his earlier labours 
on the fubje€t, has publifhed ‘ Eine 
Gelchichte der Griechifchen Aftronomie 
bis auf Eratofthenes.”—Hiftory of Afiro- 
nomy in Greece, down to the Time of 
Eratofienes, with plates and maps. 
_Matru2zrof Wittenberg has given us a 
new edition, corrected by collating MSS. 
and feveral ancient verfions, of ‘* Neme- 
fius de Natura Hominis (Gr. and Lat. 
Hale, Gebauer). The works of this 
ancient Greek Father of the Church, in 
which, among other curious things, fome 
think they find the difcovery of the cir- 
culation of the blood, certainly deferved, 
in preference to many others, to be il- 
luftrated by the labours of the critic. 
Of Heeren’s ‘* Gefchichte des Stu- 
diums der Klaffifchen Literarur’’ —Hif- 
tory of the Study of Claffical Litera- 
ture, fince the Revival of Letters—the 
{econd part has been publithed, comprifing 
the flourifhing period of Italy under the 
Medici, and fhewing, that, even after 
Rofcoe, it was poflible to make many 
new and interefling difcoveries on this 
fubjeét, among the trealures of the Li- 
brary of Woltenbuttle. 
Important, toe, in a_ philological 
point of view, is the new edition of J. 
H. Voss’s ** Tranilation of Homer,” in 
~‘ 
German verfe in imitation of the ancient 
hexameter. Vofs, the creator of thig 
metre in the German language, has paid 
due attention to the objections made by 
critics againft him, particularly with re- 
{pect to quantity, and in its prefent im- 
proved ftate his tranflation is fuch as no 
other modern nation can boat of. cor~ 
rected map of the world, with eXplana- 
tions, and a plan of the houfe of Ulyfies, 
are added to this edition, 
An excellent contribution towards the 
philofophy of language in geferal, and 
the German in partidular, is the feventh 
and laff part of EBERHARD’s ** Allge- 
meine Deutiche Synonymik”—-General 
Dictionary of German Synonymes—a 
work, which for compietenefs, and for 
nice difcrimination of ideas, furpafles 
every fimilar produétion in any of the 
modern languages, and which ought to 
be itudied by every one who wiihes to 
make himfelf complete matter of the trea- 
fures of the German idiom. | 
BeLLes-LETTRES AND POETRY. 
In the department of Belles lettres one 
production had excited the moft eager ex- 
pectation in the German public, which. 
has been gratified in the ** Kalendar for 
1802,” (Berlin, Unger). This pocker- 
book contains ‘* The Maid of Orleans, a 
romantic Tragedy,” by Fr. SCHILLER. 
The adje&tive romantic is, in fome mea- 
fure, defcriptive. of this new kind of 
drama in which the fupernatural is allied 
with the natural. When the heroine pays 
the debt of her fex,.the fpirit departs 
from her. This pure emanation of poetic 
genius, which will undoubtedly defcend 
to future ages, cannot fail to produce the 
fame powerful effect as it did on the Leip- 
zig {tage, wherever there is an aétre(s ca- 
pable of wearing with dignity the fa- 
cred armour of the Maid of Orleans. 
The Michaelmas Catalogue likewife 
announces the publication of the third. 
part of Wieland’s Ariftippus. Here the 
enchantrefs Lais no longer aéts the prin- 
cipal part. With young Euphemifmus 
the poet roves through the delightful val- 
leys of Theffaly.. Higher obje&s here 
fetter the attention. The queftion fa 
much agitated in our days, about the beft - 
conftitution of Government, is well dif- 
cuffed in the analyfis given of that mo 
fublime, and yet in many refpetts abfurd, 
political poem, ‘* TheRepublic of Plato.” 
Since the time when Piatunizing table- 
companions encircled the great Lorenzo 
de’ Medici, no one has penetrated {o- 
deeply into the fpirit of Plato as this 
German Avsiftippus. 
Befides 
