New-York tribune., 1883-03-13
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

pTssnIps + RgoOKs Books I-VI. 12mO, PIP. ZoZ'
Boston Roberts br0thers'
The translator and editor of this instaiment OF
RHckerts principal work says in his preface that
o.. noet in proportion to his GIFT and his work Is tne
least known to us of all the German seers ana sing
ers This is true; and there is reason Tor H. u
which this volume is full of illustrations. hucAer'
was If not quite poet, seer ana stfohs man
Born in 1888. he lived until 1856, aud one OF lis
,orv --latest productions in verse was an imprOmptu
tribnte 70 Abraham Lincoln. He passed his youth
and his early manhood under the influences Whlca
were at work in intellectual Europe during the
time of the first French Revolution and the first
Empire; a period when, cOntemporaneously with
new theories of politics and of society, the modern
interest in the languages and tine religions
and the PHILOSOPHERS of the Oriental peoples began
To the latter he soon devoted himself and became
Professor of Oriental Literature in the University of
Frlanqen and afterward in the University
of Berlin He seems to have stepped his
soul in the calm, deep thoughtiuness of
the East The chief result of this habit of thought
in mind which was both philosoDhc and poetic
was "The Brahmin," a work which is not repro
duction of Brahminical philosophy hardly an im-
tation of it, but an original treatment in the
Brahmnical spirit of the great questions of life as
they are presented i'll the Western world. lie
wrote ain the character of a Brahmin spiritually
endeavored to write IN the spirit of Oriental thought
while he dealt with the problems of Western nature
and of Western civilization. Here at once is
an ineongruity. He attempted what Is
almost impossible. The spirit and pur-
pose of the highest Oriental philosophy
is concentrated in the phrase RiT-cdnG which is the
name of the loftiest condition of the human soul
known TO Brahminical philosophy. Now ntr-wdha
means simply no wind and metaphOrically de-
noles state of freedom from the agitation OF rest
less desire But the agitation of restless desire is
the germ the spring, the foundation, the very
essence of Western civilization. Discomfort is the
mother of Improvement and without dIscontent
there is no progress. This. rightly or wrongly, is
the main-sprIng of the civilization of the West !;
which has made the West what it is; and made it,
among other things the antipOdes of the East IN ii9
mental traits its people the antipOdeS of The
Orlentals physically Oriental novels of thought
are dametricaly opposed to Western novels of lie.
True as a. this is 1t is equally true that man is
essentially the same throughout the world
The revolutions of the centuries have wrought
no radical change in human nature. There .ore
Riickerts Brahminical poems are foreign to us only
in their methods and what he says is generally
true and as applicable to IN Europe i'll the
nineteenth century as the Proverbs of Solomon are
orthe Lamentation of jeremiah, remote az they are
in their origin and Oriental as they are III their
tone of thought. Moreover Ruckert is not Oriental
in his tone of thought He is calm; he is deep
contenplative"; but his calm and Lis conteln Ia
tion are those of Western man and Christian.
He has not caught the spirit of the East, nor
its outward manner.
slr. Brooks has here presented us with six of the
twenty books which comprise Ruekert's Brahmin;
and we must congratulate him upon the felicity
both of form aud of phrase with which he has re-
produced the twelve-syllabe ianlbic rhymes OF his
original. HIS work has not at all the air of trans
lation. 1t is entirely free from GemansmS, and
flows freely as if it were originally written in Eng
lish And its English is notably good, with
mastery of poetic dictiOn of the simpler sort that
often suggests that the writer may have been close
student of Shakespeare's Sonnets As to the sub
stance of the book it in most respects admirable.
Rickerts moral tone is that of the purest Christian
ity, and he combines with this knowledge of tho
human heart and an elevation of purpose which
make his work a storehOuse of high philosophy
bodied in epigrammatic verse-with this qualifica-
tion of phrase that his epigrams have no sting.
His teaching, and even his satire, is always gentle
and loving. His orphic utterances frequently
large. grand, and far-reaching,-of which this
example, admirably presented in Mr.. Brooks's Eng
lish verse:
Two worlds are mine; of these if renounced
Take the great outer one, not the small one in me-
Thou wilt no longer name the world within thee
When once thou knowest the God in man who
dwells in ALL
Narrow and small the bounds that time and space
But Gods embracing thought has Code o~n boundIess
See again this:
If one has stepped aside, dear man forgive him
Think thou, too hast foot may stumble, Slip or
Hoppg tohO humble gro,cs ,cithout humiliation
UhO ere the cOrld sUbdues has learned selsubuGdion.
The mean when rich IS proud, when poor he is de-
pressed;
The noble, proud when poor, when rich is lowliest
Rickert is full of such insights into the very
foundations of the higher morals the eternal truths
which they rest and they are set forth with
simple felicity and drectness which deepens their
impressiveness, and which the translator has pre-
served with singular and admirable skill Here
are some lines which embody much wisdom In re-
gard to the intercourse OF daily life:
Doorkeeper to the heart is a mans countenance:
What welcome waits within, ii tells thee III ad-
vance.
Wears it friendly look, with hope it lights thine
If an unfriendy, hope is frightened back or flies
Yet oft when thou hast reached the master, it
The porter falsely woke in thee such hopes or fears
IRgrdcious looks on Keep gracious masters cute,
Whte often gracious looks on the atngrGcOas toat
Then let not smiles too thy eager hopes excite
Nor even sulk at once put all thy hopes TO fight.
The lines which we have emphasized are quito
Shakespearean in the way in which they braid
fine bright thread Of truth in and out with play of
words that seems almost like a cOnceit. Whoever
delights IN tins sort Of soft, sweet moral pungency
will find its rich flavor frequent in Rtlckcrt's lines
and will be very thankful to his translator
We must, however, bring our brief and, to U.S.
very unsatisfying notice of remarkable book TO
an end with protest against its title. 1t is not
"pOen." 1t is in a creation it is without
imagination, almost without fancy. 1t is not
structure, but is without organization of any kind
1t is merely a collection of fine thoughts expressed
in verse. These utterances Of pure morality.
hgh nhinsonhu and Id,,,