The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-08-21

Great, then passes on to Leasing and the
illuminate, after which it discusses Goethe,
Schiller, romanticism, the growth of lyric
poetry and the literature of science and the
drama. This mere outline of the contents
gives no idea of the historic breadth and
power of the work or of how wisely it inter
prets the relations of German literature to
German life in the successive ages of its
development.
In such work as this; a work of great
critical genius, we are brought to realizing
sense of the deep worth and power of the
leading thought of a nation like the Germans.
1t is thus brought home to US as something
we cannot afford to neglect, and we are made
to see that our culture is limited and defect
i've so long as this element is left out. A
work like this gives cumulative impression,
such as we do not get when reading the work
of any one author, an impression of how
powerful the bent of nation may be in one
great and mighty tidal direction. A certain
character and quality of thought and of feel
ing about life appears in the literature of
ancient Greece, and these we cannot know
in their fullness without knowing that liter
AZURE. Another and not less important
quality of thought and feeling appears in the
literature of Germany, and we cannot know
it in its fullest and richest measure unless
we know that literature. The special Ger
man quality is to be seen in the history of
the German people, and it is to be seen in
that great philosophie movement begun by
Kant, and which is fundamentally German;
but nowhere is it to be seen SO fully as in the
German literature. At the present moment
we stand much in need of that quality in our
thinking. 1t will help to broaden our minds
and to give them the capacity of spiritual
insight.
We have learned in these later years that
all forms of thought are to be studied in
their historic relations. This is why such
work as that by Professor Scherer is of SO
much value in bringing us into close contact
with the growth of form of thought as it is
embodied in national literature. With his
help we are enabled to classify such men as
Goethe and Schiller, Leasing and Herder,
and to see where they belong in relation to
the thinking of their own time and to the
thinking of all times. His philosophic pen
etration and his large literary culture have
enabled him to do something more for us
than merely to record the doings of individ-
ual authors; but he has interpreted for us
man nation as it is embodied in the htera-
ture of that nation. He has done for Ger
many what Tame has done for England, but
with the added merit of seeing the spiritual
side of things, which Tame overlooked for
the most part. He does not describe the
outward aspects of the life of the German
people, and offer us this as a true interpreta-
ton of German literature. His method is far
more in accordance with the spirit of the Ger
man people, and with a just recognition of
the ideal elements of their literature. Less
arrogant and less coneeited than Taine, he
has more of the broad critical spirit which
sees the great facts of life on every side. He
is too broad minded to be wed to any spe-
ciaI philosophy with an absolute trust, and he
does carry generous spirit and noble pur-
pose throughout his work.
The second volume of this work is worthy
of special attention, because of the renarka-
BILE literary development which it describes.
The period from Leasing to Heine was the
greatest German literature has yet seen; and
this period has been described SO truly by no
one as by Professor Scherer. He measures
its great men with just valuation, and he
clearly penetrates the guiding thoughts which
controlled this era. In his dealings with this
rich literary development he shows his skill
and his power as a literary historian, and
also his great merit as literary critic. tbs
enough to say of this work that it supersedes
all other works on the same subject.
GEORGE WILLIS Cooke.