Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1859-11-10


We belies1e that while even the literary pOr-
limited knonledge of the literature of Germany,
there are fW readers Who are not familiar With
the names Which stand At the head of thatlite-
nature. Among these, aud intimately assOcia-
ted with The most illustfio1s of them, is the
name Of Frederick Schiller, who was born Noy..
10Th, 17ke, At Marbcch in Wiertembefg
that to-day bis enthusiastic countrymen CONF:
memoFata the one hnndredth anniversary of the
day, Wlie give to Germany her greatest tragic
poet, aud 10 all literature one who has long
since been ranked among the greatest masteEsof
tragedy.
That poetic spirit, and that conception of the
sublime, and the spiritual, which afterwards
contributed SO largely in elevating the hearts
and minds This cOuutrymen, was early mani
Tested in him. We remember years ago, of
reading an incident of his childhood, which We
have always associated with him as characteris-
tic of the nature and genius Shich was after>
wards so fully and beautifully developed. 1t
was, this: one evening the father and family of
Schiller, sitting down to their social tea.table,
missed the boy from his accustomed place. In
the meantime violent thunder storm had
arisen, and with feelings of the deepest anx-
| iety everyone sought for the absent child
After Fuitiess search, his father going out
some distance from the house, discovered the
subject o.. his fears md auxietqs seated upon
the topmost boughs of one Of the Hottest trees
which was rocked to aud fro by the violence of
the tempest and there, with his young face,
around which the tightening seemed to play,
tnrnn6 f0yro I'd fho civ oF
the terrors, and absorbed by the sublmity of
the scene, sat the child of six years, and when
uncOnsciously summoned by his father, his only
expression was, SIS it not beautiful father?-is
it not grand?" Was not here the germ Of that
power and those conceptions, which few years
after first awoke his countrymen to the knowl.
edge that new, great, and lofty spirit was in
their mids2 There is something different, we
think, in this incident, from most of those which
are so currently ascribed to the early lives of
great men, something which through an after,
and somewhat better acquaintance with the
poets writings, has harmonized with our
impressions of them, and there is one portrait
of him which always wildly recalls this Incl
dent. The noble, spiritual face is turned, as in
the storm-scene, upward-the penetrating eye
seems to pierce beyond the clouds and beyond
the sky-not as Byron is represented with dark
stormy face turned toward darker and storm.
| Ter heaven, as if he, too, would penetrate the
tempest-veil-and, like a,rebel angel challenge
in that dark look, the power beyond On the
one brow there is sublmity mingled with Sc
rious awe-and, it is stamped with the seal of
gentle and holy thoughts;-on the other too, is
sublimity and power-and even something of
that divine glow which marks the brow of ge-
MUS; but the heavenly light, which might have
played around it, has been quenched in the
darkness and strife of earthly pride and passion.
~ tho -en-nfaighteen, Schiller wrote, or rather
commenced his first dramatic production, t'The
Robbers, and it is said that he always preferred
it above anything he ever wrote With this
tragedy, his name is, doubtless, most intimately
associated. So familiar to his readers are its
finest ard most prominent scenes, that it is al
most Unnecessary to even allude to them
Every one remembers the scene containing Moor's
profound reflections upon life and humanity;
the retrospection of his own life, and that re-
morse the agony of which, the most stoical
heart cannot resist. His Soliloquy at night in
the forest, reminds every reader of that still
more celebrated one "To be, or not to be-" and
although Mr.. Coleridge "trusts that few will be
rash or ignorant enough to compare Schiller
with Shakespeare" we cannot but see strong
points of resemblance in more instances than
one The vision of the day of Judgment, desert.
bed by Francis Won Moor-the effect of a con-
science awakened, and an Imagination frenzied
by fear, bears striking resemblance to one or
two scenes of like nature, as described by
Bunyan. In the reading of '"Tbc Robbers"
there is constant tumult of emotion, some
times the mind is startled and dazzled by its
exhibitions of intellectual power, at others.
startled and swayed, aud finally carried away
by the predominant power of feeling. This
effect is more evident, We think, in this play,
than in any other of Schiller's, with which We
are acquainted. Always deeply moved where
the writer intends us to be, the mind is yet more
occupied, and the admiration excited by the
great thoughts, the heroic deeds, or the pure
spirituality of the characters presented. The
misfOrtunes, the evil circumstances which seem.
cd e. In 70 L: