The Sun.
London, England, 1829-12-10 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

• THE FOREIGN REVIEW, No. IX.
" Jean Paul Frederick Richter"—whose
memoirs form the first article in the present
Number of this Revietv—in his private cha-
racter, not less than in the hardships to which
from want of money he was for many years sub-
jected, bears a considerable resemblance to our
own immortal writer, Dr. Johnson. Both were
-Men of mean extraction, both bore up against
the attacks of poverty in a bold uncompromia •
log spirit of independence, both preserved high
moral characters to the last, both lived to sec
themselves almost idolized by their coun-
!,tYmen, and both in the outset of their
literary career suffered from the same
ludicrous misfortune ; Johnson from the
want of a pair of shoes, and Richter from
the want of money to pay for the soleing of his
brother Sam's boots. At this point, however,
the parallel stops. The sufferings of his youth
and manhood, combined with an hereditary scor-
tie• affection, left on Johnson's mind a
gloomy sardonic hypochondriasm that nothing
short of death could efface. On the more elas-
tic mind of Richter adversity made no such im-
pression. In the lowest depth of his distress he
was always cheerful, always sanguine, always
Sustained by that best of all human faiths,
the f
; -sith in himself. Surrounded by poverty
fn its. most squalid shape, a rude un-
e°urtlY scholar, unacquainted with man,
but through the medium of books—those
Most plausible and convincing of all deceivers—
lifted with no powers of address, he yet plod-
ded
along his Weary road, every step of which
was
up hill, in the firm conviction that he must
ere _
long, succeed. His earliest works were pen-
hain a cottage, consisting of one room and
ll a window, to the music of his mother's
spinning-wheel, and the uproarious demands of
.his little brother for that agreeable novelty, din-
ner. Yet, despite these disadvantages, the
Works in question showed indications of
Profound
reflection, regulated indeed, and
tinged with affectation—which some whole-
sale admirers of German intellect will
doubtless pronounce genius—but replete with
energy' and everywhere exhibiting traces of a
nund that loved to think and act for itself. Few
authors,h whether professed or otherwise, would
7e bornef
up against half the calamities that
• fell up
Richter's lot. His earliest work was
d
'am
pdi- re second was nearly in the same
ainent---and his third was successful only
far as it enabled him to pay for the soleing of
his brother Sam's boots. Still no wise discou-
aged) he persevered, and after making a lucky
l
With a novel, entitled Hesperus, he found
Unself raised to the dignity of one of the first
authors of his country. From this period
1111 Went prosperously with Richter. What-
ever he published was read, and in part
understood, hut nevertheless invariably ad-
.taired; In the earlier period of his career he
Is, dined somewhat to heterodoxy, or rather seep-
' ie:ism—a very common failing with young men of
ardent temperaments, until a ripened judgment
1.144 acquaintance with mankind have taught
them the folly of such opinions—but as he ad-
',anted in life, doubt changed into conviction, and
e became, to his credit, a warm, honourable,
and t conscientious supporter of Christianity.
to In Mrs Carlyle's elaborate analysis, he appears
1,,,° great advantage both as a writer and as a
n,,an• Perhaps he is a little too warmly eulo-
Z 444, but this is a trivial fault, and on the right
of him,
characteristic anecdotes are related
uim, one of which exhibits his boldness and
u,°lle of independence in a very humorous light,
he entered the Leipsic University, where
" read multitudes of books and wrote down
thole volumes of excerpts and private specula-
tens," he took a fancy to dress after what he
styled the English fashion. Unluckily hiS dress
.as at variance with the taste of his countrymen ;
bare neck, too—for he wore his shirt col-
a'. °Pen as some of our rising young London
poets do
at present, in order to convince the
world that their genius is unquestionably origi-
ilaksgave universal offence, so much so that he
actually looked on himself as a sort of martyr to the
feyr aces, and persisted in wearing his " costume"
and
jfull !even years, to the no little astonishment
I " indignation of the Breotians of Leipsic. On
another occasion he was required, as a school ex-
ercise, to defend some heterodox point in re-
gi", which he did with such earnestness and
' ingenoit-y, that he not only abolished—to borrow
•la P°lite phrase from the Fancy—his antagonist,
nUt
even the Professor who rushed in open-
inouthed to assist him. A similar anecdote is
recorded of Dr. Watson, at Cambridge. Mr.
,t='arlyle thus eloquently sums up ltichter's intel-
LeetUal character
Nowhere,' observes Richter on another occasion
pot You collect the stress-memorials and siege-medals of
g!rtr More pleasantly and philosophically than at Col-
e; the Academic burgher exhibits to us how many
th....morists and Diogeneses Germany has in it. Travelling
ie'agb this parched Sahara, with nothing round him but
lot,Zandy solitude, and no land-mark on earth, but only
to Cars in the Heaven, Richter does not anywhere appear
I~t far faltered in his progress ; for a moment to have
W'o t, or even to have lost good humour.The man
no shears not death,' says the Greek poet, ' '
will start at
And fad"rs,' Paul had looked desperation full in the face,
pr
that for him she was not desperate. Sorely
' hotro on from without, his inward energy, his strength
'ict~lfof thought and resolve did but increase, and establish
staido, a surer and surer foundation ; he stood like a rock
',crow tue beating of continual tempests. Nay, a rock
or fled with foliage ; and in its clefts, nourishing flowershi4)'"vettest perfume. For there was a passionate fire in
• the; as well as a stoical calmness ; tenderest love was
and devout reverence ; and a deep genial humour
• whole warm sunshine, softening the whole, blending the
trials 'otu light sportful harmony. In these its hard
out ', Whatever was noisiest in his nature cause
leuro„al° still purer clearness. It was here
i that he
peei‘4 to distinguish what is perennial and m-
s 41)ie in man, from what is transient and earthly ;
" toPa Prize the latter, were it King's crowns and
tilue epee triumphal chariots, but as the wrappage
; we might say, as the finer or coulser papeAr
loft,„ h the heroic Poem of Life is to be writtenk.
os_
aeuleindestructible faith in the dignity of man too p
t•
he „,`:4 him, and a disbelief in all other dignities; and
{tom *fu'gar world, and what it could give him, or wiz's-
' hitti h"Rn him, was, in his eyes, but a small matter.. Nay,h
in! out found a voice for these things ; which, though
t If 4111 could listen to it, he felt to be a true one, and that
forth
tekoo !one of it could be altogether lost. Preaching,
thy h ",e wisdom, which in the dark deep wells of advtr-
°ad drawn up, he felt himself strong, Fiurageous,
Y• He
had an internal world wherewith to fence