1806. | 
ing the world, he with a manifeft averfion 
avoided {peaking. On the other hand, he 
turned the difcourfe with peculiar plea- 
fure to the paft {cenes of his youth, and 
whatever in later periods were connected 
with them. His retentive memory; aided 
the livelinefs of his imagination, | the 
force and tendernefs of his expreffion, ren- 
dered the reprefentation of thefe {ccnes 
truly intcretting to his friends. 
In the laft weeks of his life he fecluded 
himielf entirely from all the world, even 
from thofe who were deareft to him. 
He fent them many times kind meffages, 
but declined feeing them. Tranquillity 
of foul; refignation to God's holy 
will ; warm emotions of gratitude for the 
joys of life; a gentle endurance of the 
fufferings of death ; a calm profpe& of 
the grave ; firm hopes and joyful expec-. 
tations of a higher exiltence ;—thefe were 
now the fum of all his fenfations. The 
fair form of the’ angel of death; the 
foothing image of the grave ; the exalting 
view of a better world, which fired the 
lofty-minded youth in hours of divine in- 
fpiration to pen his facred hymns ;—all 
thefe now hovered round the head of the 
* dying hoary faint. The happy end of a 
good and juft man he has fung in the 
twelfth canto of the Meffiah with an un- 
paralleled grandeur of defcription. The 
courage of the man, and the triumph of 
the Chriftian, attended him in the hard 
ftrugsles of diffolution, that grew ever 
more painful on a nearer approach. In. 
this exalted frame of mind he was once 
fpeaking of cur Saviour: ** Chrift fuf- 
fered (faid he) : we know it: why are we 
then aftonified that he fuffered, that he 
was obliged to fuffer? Was it not the 
will of the All-Supreme.”” Inone of the 
Jaft and ferere conflicts with the aggra- 
vated fufferings of his foul and body, he 
raifed himfelf up on his couch, folded his 
hands, and with the uplifted look of one 
as it were transfigured, pronounced the 
holy words fo fively illuftrated in his ode of 
the Compaffiooator: ** Can a woman for- 
get her child, fo that fhe have not pity on 
the fruit of her womb? and fhould fhe, 
yet will I not forget thee.” The cup of 
his affliction’ was now drained dry: he 
had drank a full ‘draught: he fell into a 
gentle flumber, and awcke no more. He 
died at noon on the 14th of March, 
3303. 
A folemn funera!, fuch as Germany 
had never witneffed for any man of letters 
before, honoured the Jaft venerable re- 
mainsof Klopftock. The city which our 
immortal bard had, from his frequently 
Memoirs of Klopftock, the German Poet. 
427 
declared attachment to its happy conftitu- 
tion, inhabited for upwards of half a cen- 
tury, combined with the citizens of the 
neighbouring place where his corpfe was 
to be depofited, in arranging the folemni- 
ties of his interment. ‘The reprefentas 
tives alfo of the German and foreign ftatess 
the ambafladors and agents from Belgia, 
Denmark, Evigland, France, Auftrias 
Pruffia, and Ruffia, joined this affocia= 
tion, inorder to pay, in the name of their 
nations, this tribute of refpeét to the 
maiies of Klopfteck. . 
The ceremony took place on a clear 
fpring morning of March the 22d. By 
command of the’ Hamburg Senate, 4 
corps d'honneur of a hundred men, on 
foot and en horfeback, attended: military 
honours were appointed on the corpfe’s 
pafling the eight guard-houfes in the 
Hamburg territory ; and before the main- 
guard the fine company of dragoons was 
drawn out. Notwithftanding the immenfe 
concourfe of people, amounting to at 
leat fifty thoufand, in the ftreets and 
market-place, all imerference of the po- 
lice was fuperfluous. A univerfal -fenti- 
ment of awe fupplied its place: it im- 
prefled filence and gravity on an incalcu- 
lable mafs of men. At ten o'clock the 
proceflion commenced with the tolling of 
the tells of the fix principal churches in 
Hamburg. A long train of carriages 
(which, exclufive of thofe from Altona, 
were a hundred and fixty in number,) of 
foreign envoys and Hamburg citizens, 
fenators, men of letters, merchants, teach- 
ers, and artifts, followed clofe behind the 
open hearfe, drawn by four horfes, with 
four tiders mounted on them. On this 
hearfe food the plain coffin, covered 
with black. About half-way tothe grave 
the folemoly flow-moving proceffion ftop- 
ped before the gate on the Hamburg moun- 
tain that forms the boundary between Den- 
mark and Hamburg, where an equally 
numerous crowd was aflembled. At 
the gate of Altona, and the Hamburg 
landmark, the corpfe was received by the 
fiift perfons of the reya! government, by 
the literati, officers, foreign generals, and 
citizens, who fell into the train. A Da- 
nith corps d'honneur fucceeded that of 
Hamburg, which returned. Between’ 
eight mutes with black rods walked three 
young girls, immediately before the 
hearfe. They were attired in white, and 
veiled, having garlands of rofes and oak- 
leaves on their heads. They carried gar: 
lands of roles and myrtles, and bafkets of 
opening leaves and {pring flowers, to the 
grave of the deceafed. Four mutesunco- 
wy vered 
