The Sun.
London, England, 1836-07-06 00:00:00

LITERATURE

• THE FOREIGN QUARTERLY REVIEW.
No. XXXIV. Loudon, Richter and Co.
Of the eleven articles comprised in the July Number
of the " Foreign Quarterly," the most interesting is the
Review of the Merck Correspondence ; the most re-
condite the observations suggested by the labours of
the Record and Historical Commissioners of England
and France ; the most philosophical the remarks on
Thibeaudeau's Memoirs of Napoleon ; the most de-
servedly severe the strictures on Prince Piickler-
Muskau's late Tour in France and Germany ; and the
nearest akin to a bookseller's puff the laudatory intro-
duction of Von Tietz's Reminiscences of Russia,
Turkey and Greece.
John Henry Merck was a sound scholar, a distin-
guished critic, and what contributed not a little to the
social enjoyment of his friends—the owner of an
ample fortune. He resided at Darmstadt, was for
some time connected with the Frankfort Journal,
and throughout his life appears to have exercised the
most extraordinary influence over his literary Contem-
poraries. Goethe declared that no man had exercised
so great an influence over his life as Merck ; Herder
only besought Heaven to continue him in the pos-
session of such a friend ; and Wieland protested in
the fulness of his heart that he would love Goethe
and Merck were he to love nothing else on
earth. The correspondence which we have here
coupled with the name of this extraordinary man is
a selection of letters, addressed to him between 1770
and 1790, by the most eminent literary men in Ger-
many, and several distinguished foreigners—all on
subjects connected with literature or personal attach-
ments. In the list of Correspondents we find, be-
sides the distinguished individuals above named, the
Grand Duke and Duchess of Weimar, Sophia de la
Roche, author of " Rosalie's Letters," &c., H. Fuseli,
Baie, Nicolai, Dalberg, Prince Primate of Frankfort,
Blumenbach, Sir Joseph Banks, &c. &c. The ex-
tracts which the reviewer has made from these charm-
ing letters fill us with the greatest desire to be-
come acquainted with the original work. Among
the several choice spirits which lie introduces thus
familiarly to our acquaintance he appears himself as an
old favourite with each, and even :in their presence in-
terrupts the conversation to tell us what lie thinks of
them, while they sit chatting apart in the most good-
humoured way possible. Thus he says very beauti-
fully, as well as correctly, of Goethe—,
" In appreciating the vantage-ground which the collected
mind obtains over the being of impulse and passion, Goethe
seems to have aimed and arrived at that stoical atmosphere
of self-possession, whence he could leisurely survey the vast
mass of human nature (lying like the " cloud bedecked pano-
rama of Germany") beneath him ; and deliberately choose
and appropriate those portions best adapted for his use. To
accomplish this, he necessarily sacrificed the indulgence of
those affections by which the independence of other minds is
compromised. To Nature he gave his heart, and felt it
securely invested ; to Mankind his understanding, and nothing
more, and though, by the immense range and ardent cultivation
of his versatile genius, for which no subject was so intricate
that it did not seek to explore it, no fact so simple that it
disdained to appropriate it, he indirectly included the
direct benefit of his fellow-creatures, (he was, for
instance, the original inventor and first projector of the excel-
lent system of national schools in Germany), yet we may
safely question whether he was influenced so much by an ex.
panded philanthropy as by a refined selfishness. At the same
time, by the same process by which he controlled the elements
of his own passions, was he enabled to agitate them in the
bosom of others, No one could kindle stronger and more
lasting attachments; no heart remain more fire-proof than his
own. He despised not the sweets of love or friendship, and
no author has more vividly described them, but he culled
them only so far as was consistent with his prescribed law of
independence. After his first boyish fancies, it may be
doubted whether he ever loved ; but as the fresh breath of
youth is supposed to invigorate the failing energies of old
age, so did Goethe refresh the powers of his imagination at the
fountain of an overflowire', heart, and catch the very tone of
truth from the impassioned effusions of his votaries. *
" In poetry, although he has bequeathed so much to poste-
rity, he seems, like our Pope, to display rather a sytematic
versification of prose, than a spontaneous effusion of verse.
He had neither the poet's timidity nor the poet's flights.
Mankind he took as he found them, neither seeking nor
caring to make them better. He fixed no ideal stan-
dard, therefore experienced no disappointment. He was
highly receptive, but rarely sensitive—imaginative without an
ideal—poetical without fiction ; and the good old age to which
he attained may be attributed less to his robust physical con-
stitution than to the absence of all mental irritation."
And still more beautifully of Wieland—.the happy
husband, the fond father, the affectionate friend, the
simple citizen, and the sweet poet
Wieland was indeed just what a poet ought to be.
Dwelling in a dream of beauty and home of love, no views of
aggrandisement, or visions of perfection, disturbed the one or
embittered the other. Health, peace, and competence, were.
all he sought for his muse, his family, or himself. Poetry he
loved for poetry's sake, and, quoting from a former work of his
own, he thus addresses his muse :
" ' Thou art, oh, Muse 1 the blessing of my life,
And if the world be deaf, then sing to me alone.'
Pure and lively in diction, fanciful and elegant in sentiment,
he neither provokes to mirth, nor depresses to melancholy.
In the same relation as flowers and birds in the scale of ani-
mated nature, is Wieland's verse in the ranks of modern
literature. He aspired not to form one of the seven pillars of
the temple of wisdom, but his were the roses which clustered
to the very pinnacle. And, to conclude in the words of the
late Mr. Taylor—' If not the greatest genius among the
poets, he was the greatest poet among the geniuses of
Germany."
In the justice of the Reviewer's censures of the
indolence of the English Record Commissioners
we entirely concur. For thirty-five years has this
country h
-een at the expense of keeping up this
farce of an enquiry into the state of our national
records ; • and yet the French Government, at
the ,soggestion of M. GUIZOT, has done more
to elucidate its history in three years than we have
done during all that time, 13nt the fact is, that
most of the Commissions issued in England, ObialY
in pnn6qUCTICC of the indolence of the Ministry, are
convon,4 ino thy means of carrying on a system of
jobbing and TY? too many instances a
Commissioner is but another name toe a ginecurist,
The article on Thibeaudeau Memoirs of the Con-
sulate of r4apoleon and of the Empire, is written with
much ability. The Reviewer well observes, that before
the publication of Thibeaudeau's work we had