Retrofpect of German Literature— Belles Lettres. 
Schelling, taught the moft abfurd 
idealifm. If an idealift aét confiftently, 
he mutt neceflarily become proud and 
arrogant ; for what deference needs he 
to pay to beings which he confiders to 
be only the creations of his own brain. 
And in fact, proud and arrogant were 
the German idealifts in fo high a de- 
gree, that they drew upon themfelves 
the odium, and, what is worfe, the ri- 
dicule of the public. But unfortu- 
nately they were feated in the profef- 
fional chairs of the uniyerfities. Hun- 
dreds of youths heard their affertions 
thence trumpeted forth as the moft 
fublime truths; and many of them 
adopted the moft ridiculous opinions 
as the revelations of profound wifdom, 
and confidered the arrogance of the 
teachers as a proof of the fublimity of 
their genius, and the ftrength of their 
minds, which they endeavoured to emu- 
late. What they had learned while at - 
tending the idealiftical leétures, they 
applied to the other {ciences; and Ger- 
many fuddenly had to witnefs the 
equally fcandalous and ridiculous farce 
—a troop of beardiefs boys {chooling 
the men—and afferting, with the great- 
eft confidence, that whatever had hi- 
therto been done in any of the {ciences 
{the mathematics only excepted), was 
nothing but wretched patchwork :— 
they would firit introduce fenfe and 
order. 
This confufion likewife pervaded the 
region of poetry. A couple of cool- 
headed idealifts, but not pofiefled of 
the brighteft talents, brought forth a 
Theory of Poetry, the fundamental, 
though indeed not the avowed, princi- 
ple of which was, that nothing: was 
fublime and exceilent in poetry but 
that which they would produce. They 
applied this theory to the already ex- 
ifting maiterly works of the poets ofGer- 
many and other countries: and when 
they found that it did not agree with 
them, initead of becoming mittruftful 
of the folidity of the {uperftructure 
they had raifed, they did not hefitate 
to declare thefe works to be wretched 
productions. Innumerable are the ab- 
furdities which, in confequence, they 
boldly held forth with the tone of the 
higheft authority. , For initance, they 
faid, that a work of art fhould have no 
other aim but to exift:—that the French 
nation had never yet produced a poet: 
—that the Germans poffefled as yet no 
fine literature, except the ballads of 
the itinerant and alehoufe minitrels, 
and the extravagant tales and wonder- 
647 — 
ful ftories fold in the ftreets to the po- 
pulace, &c, On the contrary, they 
praifed the produétions and conceits 
of the old Italian and Spanith poets; 
and poured forth an inundation of 
flat profaic fonnets, trios, and the likes 
in fhort, they laboured with all their 
might to depreciate that which they 
were incapable of rifing to, true poe- 
try;,and to perfuade the world, that 
it eflentially confifted of what they and 
and others without genius and_poeti- 
cal infpiration could furnifh—in a 
trifling foolifh play with words, me- 
tres, and fanciful arrangement of the 
rimes. 
A number of circumftances concur- 
red to favour their attempts. All the 
orthodox difciples of the fe& of ideal- 
ifts joined their voices with their’s. 
They themfelves were contributors to 
the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung of 
Jena, which is confidered to be the 
beft Review publifhed in Germany; 
and they did not fail to make ufe of 
this vehicle to load their partizans 
with encomiums, and to depreciate the 
works of {uch as happened not to be- 
long to their fect. At laft, the editors 
of that journal became afhamed of their 
baretaced proceedings, and willingly 
laid hold of the firftt opportunity of 
diflolving their connection with them. 
But now they began to publith jour- 
nals of their own (none of which, 
however, outlived a year and a day) 
in which they {poke with grofs difre- 
fpest, and even contempt, of the mof 
eminent writers of their country, and 
even of Wieland himfelf, the immor- 
tal chanter of Oberon; and bepraifed, 
with the moft naufzous adulation only 
one German poet, Gothe, but who is 
not only a poet, but Prime Minifter of 
the Prince in whofe territory they then 
lived. By fuch manceuvres they de- 
terred every one, who loved his eafe 
and tranquillity, from attacking them. 
At laft they wrote ob{cene books, in 
which, in a very fingular philofophi- 
cal jargon, debauchery and libertin- 
ifm are delmeated as traits of ftrength _ 
ot mind. Thus they gained over to 
their fide all the coquettes and wanton 
wives, and all the young apprentices 
and gay young men, to whom nothing 
could be more agreeable than a doc-~- 
trine which feemed to juftify, by pre-. 
tended philofophical reafonings, their 
lubricity, and the unbridled indulgence 
of their paflions. The idealift expref- 
fed the moit common and moft abfurd 
things, by words and phrafes of their 
‘ Own 
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