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MEMOIRS OF EMINENT PERSONS. 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH of FREDERIC 
SCHILLER, the GERMAN DRAMATIST, 
with fame OBSERVATIONS oz bis 
WORKS, 
=] ‘HE roth November, 1759, was the 
day that ufhered Schiller into the 
world. He was born at Marbach, in 
Wirtemberg, where his father wasa lieu- 
tenant in the fervice of the Duke. He 
was afterwards advanced to the rank of 
major, and was appointed commandant at 
The Solitude, and infpeSor of the Schools 
of Agriculture, which was his favourite 
icience, and his uncommon knowledge of 
which he has proved by feveral works.— 
He was a man of an enlightened and lively 
underftanding ; and his mother was 
equally diftinguifhed for the qualities of 
the heart and mind. Schiller -had a bro- 
ther well known for feveral excellent 
tranflations from the Englifh, particularly 
of Robertfon’s Charles V., and the Difco- 
very of America, and who is now a part- 
ner in the bufinefs of Meffrs. Schwan and 
Gotz, bookfeliers in Mannheim. A filter 
of Schiller is married to Counfellor Rein- 
wald, of Meiningen, an illuftrious member 
of the republic of letters. 
Whilea boy, Schiller was diftinguifhed 
by uncommon ardour of imagination ; 
and nothing afforded him fuch delight as 
the perufal of the Prophecies of Ezekiel. 
The fancy of this prophet is inexhauf- 
tible; and he iays open new worlds to 
our view. His unfettered imagination 
burfts forth, and paints, though in glow- 
ing colours, yet in minute detail ; and it 
is his peculiar charatter, that he tranf- 
ports all {piritual objeéts-into the fenfitive 
world, and converts them into a magnifi- 
cent pitture. The reader will unddubt- 
edly recolleé&t that paflage, tremendoufly 
fifbiime, in which he reprefents himfelf 
fianding among the tombs upon the moul- 
dering bones of the dead; the tombs 
open, the mouldering bones iffe forth, a 
new creation appears. Whocver wiil 
take. the trouble to read this paffage, and 
to compare it with Francis Moor’s Dream, 
will not fail to recognize firiking traits of 
refemblance. 
Youth havirg fucceeded to the years of 
infancy, his parents conceived that they 
could not provide better for his temporal 
weifare, than by confiding the futare for- 
mation of his mind to an inftitution whofe 
regulations have often been the fubject of 
panegyric. This was the.Military School 
« 
at Stutteard, called Charles’s Academy, 
where the whole plan of inftruétion was 
formed entirely on the principles of mili- 
tary tactics. The reveille_wakened the 
pupils, who then proceeded ex parade to 
praife the. Almighty : ez parade they 
marched to and from their hours of inftruc- 
tion, to dinner, to play, and, it is even af- 
ferted, to bed. Here exifted only one 
virtue—fubordination ; but one crime— 
free-will, independence. It is eafy to 
conceive the irkfomenefs of fuch an infti- 
tution to an ardent and ambitious mind. 
Schiller was originally deftined for the 
profeflion of furgery, and profecuted that 
ftudy with great zeal, efpecially anatomy 
and phyfiology, which opened an extenfive 
field to his highly inquifitive mind. Had 
he been able to follow this inclination, 
‘and to profecute this ftudy under other 
circumftances, Germany would perhaps 
have had to boaft a fecond Haller ; but | 
fate deftined him for a Shakefpeare.—_ 
Schiller could not fo patiently fubmit to 
the trammels impofed upon him as to be-. 
come a favourite with the infpectors of the. 
academy ; they and the whole fyftem foon 
became the objects of his fincere averfion, 
which was greatly increafed when hiftory 
opened to his view a world very different 
from that which he behe'd around him,— 
With what delight the youth lived among. 
the heroes whom Greece and Rome pro. 
duced !. How his whole foul was inflamed _ 
by the example of their Themiftocles and. 
Epaminondas, of their Horatii, their Ca- 
tos, and their Scipios! Such were the 
characters he emulated, and to fuch men 
he felt himfelf allied. Brutus in particu- 
lar was his hero ; and nothing in his opi. 
nion furpaffed the greatnefs of that Re. 
man. But his * Brutus in Elyfium,”’ a 
piece which he compofed at that period, 
conveys the beft idea of the fentiments he 
then cherifhed within bis bofem, ; 
A youth fo organized could not but 
feel that the inftitution in which he was 
placed was aworld to which he was not 
adapted, and accordingly he ardently 
fought another that was more congenial. 
He fought, and at length he fortunately 
found it in Shakefpeare. Henow, for the 
firt time, tafted life, the true life of the 
foul, and clearly perceived his future defti- 
nation, which, with trantfport, he commu. 
nicated to his moft intimate friend. ‘This 
was Zumiteeg, the celebrated mufician, 
whole Jafi compofition. was ‘* Joannajs 
Farewell.” 
