Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-11-14

uiNine DeneSt WHICH required MIN TO SATISFY
the inappeasable cravings OF his intellect
Shakespeare had kndled In him a strong
passion for the drama. Schiller had seen the
best thoughts and the noblest books of his time
put in the Iader prOltibitas. Il will write a
book" said he THAT shall be burned by the
executioner." His tragedy. ''The Robbers. "
may be styled passionate protest against
tyranny. The experience which Schiller had
himself had of human wrong gave fire and
strength to his muse in depicting it. He had
sworn eternal enmity to every form Of tyranny
over the mind or the body of man. His first drama
was an earnest how we'll he kept that VOW; and
the same sentiment OF freedom, which became
with him religion, bfeathes in a less violent
but equally powerful form in his later dramas.
The small Duke Of nuremberg took he alarm
pupil of His Serene Highness' Medical School.
conducted on military principles. had been so
audacious az to have thoughts outside the regu-
latiOn ruts in which all well-conducted subjects
of bis Serene Highness were bound to think.
He forbade the young surgeon to publish any
thing thenceforward except on medical subjects.
This attempt to clip this young eagles wings
ended in his taking flight. never to return As
to the small despot who drove him 10y intoler-
ance from his dominions, his very name is long
since forgotten. while the fame of the eyieti
poet has assembled the throne of the worlds
honor, and is regnant to-day over lands and
seas;
Whatever cline the suns bright circle warns. ~
THE WOMEN OF sCHILI.ER's TIME
Mr. SpOfford proceeded in felicitous
terms to sketch the characteristics of
many OF the accomplished women who sur
rounded Schiller-notably, Amalia Won Hedwig,
Sophia BrentanO, the Duchess Amalia, Queen
Louisa of Prussia, Ludovike Rechenbach. Char
lotte Won kalb, Frau Won Stein and the sisters
Won Lengefeld. one of whom became his wife.
She was rarely harmonious, well-mOdulated
character. intelligent without pedantry sensi-
tive but never morbid, practical bnt refined.
reverent without superstition, and earnest in
every good word and work. The most accom-
pIished women of the present day. looking at
what was achieved by these quiet and obscure
German ladies of century ago. will find no
cause to yaunt themselves upon their superior
accomplishments, notwithstanding their supe-
fior advantages. They must acknowledge that
intellectual culture was well pursued when they
find Caroline and Charlotte Won Lengefeld trans
lating Oyid's MetamOrphOses and Ossans songs,
reading SOphocles and IEschylus Shaftesbury
and GibbOn in the original and critcisin0 the
works of Diderot, Rousseau. and Frederick.
King of Prussia. 1t is refreshing to find that
the first publication of Schier's great histOri-
cal work. the Thirty Years War. took place in
the Decentralization fer Ddmen-the Ladies'
Almanac. tor 1913. Is there any magazine or
annual for ladies in this year of grace which
would venture to print a work so solid and Sc
sCHILLER'S ANGEL WIFE.
How deeply Schiller was beholden to his wife
and to his friends of the gentler sex for the finer
qualities which his imaginative works so skill
fully portray is apparent to all who read the
memoirs of his time. He revered, admired and
loved his wife, who was in fact endowed with
every quality to call forth an undying affection.
The pure, unspoiled, unselish Lotte. the life
scholar, gave herself to him with an ardent de-
vOtiOn. He was an indefatigable worker lab
Oring for great part OF his life fourteen hours
day in the most sedentary OF all employments.
reading and writing. He spurred on his physi-
cal powers to labor. at times when he should
have sought reSose At the early age of forty
five, LIES candle was burned out. During all
these sufferngs aud anxieties his angel wife
was his constant aid. his cheerer and CONSIDER
In his many hours of gloom-for he was keenly
sensitive, and had the proyerbial irritabity of
the poetic temperament-it was her ineifable
sweetness that-soothed his troubled spirit and
restored the sunshine to his day.
sCHHLERs FAME ASSURED
His fame and the place of his works in liter
allure are secure. While they are not to be held
as models of literary art, they will be forever
cherished as the pure and genuine utterances of
deeply earnest original and poetic soul In
The personality of no great author is more
clearly defined. or more widely familiar by the
aid Of art than Schller's. TALL blue-eyed
slender his pale and scholarly cOuntenance in
stnct with spiritual fire, his lineaments have
been preserved in the colossal bust Of Danneker
and in the sculptured bronze of ThOrwaldsen
They bring before Us his gentle and gracious
presence in which q rare benignity ever shone.
He seems to stand before U.s. not like Byron or
Burns. as warning. but as high example to
youth, stimulus to endeavor to cheer the
TO encourage the aspiring pointing
upward fOreyermOre. HiscOuntrymen are largely
indebted 70 his " Orks and to the seeds they have
sown deep in the hearts Of men and women for
three generations. for the measure of ccnsttli-
tionai liberty which they enjoy. Poet. historian.
philosopher. and critic, he is as widely read on
the banks OF the Ohio. the Mississippi. the Wis
consln and the Sacramento as on tile banks of
the Rhine. the Elbe and the Danube. Since his
departure from the world. more than three and
a-haif millions who speak the tongue of Schiller
have mi grated to America and mingled with
the race which speaks the tongue of Shakespeare
AS poet, he belonged to those
''Olympian bards who sung
Divine ideas below,
Which always find US young,
And always keep Us So"
''Dear son of memory. great heir of fame" as
Milton sang OF Shak speare the civilization of
the nineteenth century owes TO this son of the
eighteenth deDt which it Will not be slow to
discharge. The name of Schiller stands forever
as a synonym for the elevation of the human
race fer the perfectibility of mankind.
Following upon the admirable address of Mr..
Spoiford. Madame kasper gave, with all the ex-
preston Of her exquisite and highly cultivated
voice, German song appropriate to the occa-
sion
Rev. DIR. ]. E. Rankin then delivered with fine
effect the following poem. translated by him from
the German Of DR.. Emil Otto:
HAIL TO THEE, SCHILLER
Hail to thee. Schiller, from glory descending!
Our hearts full OF thanks, We greet thee to-day
Here, round thine image, cur glad voices blend
ing,
We bring thee our or'ring, our festival lay.
or GermanyS sons, the nobiest we own thee,
And wreathlag our song and green laurel branch
crown thee.
sim to this day, as when thou vert living.
Thou art Fatherland's boast In story and song !:
On gl0ry'5 ParnaSSuS, In raiment lfght-giying
The brightest TO her, or all the bri.rht tlrong.
The forms OF true beauty shall leave her, On never
TIL Time the sweet chords thou hast struck shall
discover.
The works OF thy genius were wrought for far
ages,