Part 12 (1/2)
Edited by the Author of ”Granby.”
”This work strongly reminds us of Miss Austen's admirable novels.”--_New Monthly Mag._
”It is full of feminine loveliness, and that quickness of observation which is the peculiar gift of the s.e.x.”--_Court Journal._
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Sammtliche werke, vorrede, p. 8. vol. 6.
[2] Count Maistre.--See his Soirees de St. Petersbourg.
[3] The aristocracy of French literature, and a very splendid aristocracy it is, has been for the last twenty years decidedly Catholic. The enemies of the church are to be found almost exclusively in the bourgeoisie, and still more in the canaille, of that literature.
[4] The words which the King of Bavaria used at the moment of founding this University, are remarkable. ”I do not wish,” said he, ”that my subjects should be learned at the cost of religion, nor religious at the cost of learning.”--See Baader's opening speech in 1826. _Philosophische Schriften_, page 366. These are golden words, which ought to be engraven on the hearts of all princes. In other words, the monarch meant to say, I wish to consecrate science by religion, and I wish to confirm and extend religion by science. This sovereign is the most enlightened, as well as munificent, patron of learning in Europe; and whether we consider his zeal in the cause of religion--his solicitude for the freedom and prosperity of his subjects--his profound knowledge, as well as active patronage, of art and science--and his true-hearted German frankness and probity; he is, in every respect, a worthy namesake of the ill.u.s.trious Emperor Maximilian. He has a.s.sisted in making his capital a true German Athens; and, small as it is, it may at this moment compete in art, literature, and science, with the proudest cities in Europe.
[5] Geschichte der Religion.--1804-11.
[6] Essai sur l'indifference en matiere de religion: 4 vols. 8vo.
Paris, 1823;--a work where learning, eloquence, and philosophy have laid their richest offerings at the shrine of Christianity.
[7] In the beautiful critique inserted in the Concordia on M. de la Martine's ”Meditations poetiques,” (1820) Schlegel observes that Lord Byron was the representative of a by-gone poesy, and La Martine the herald of a new Christian poetry that was to come. Comparing the three greatest contemporary poets out of his own country, Scott, Byron, and La Martine, Schlegel saw in the productions of the first, the poetry of a vague reminiscence--in those of the second, the poetry of despair; and in those of the last, the commencement of a poetry of hope.[8] Much as he reprobated the anti-christian spirit and tendency of Lord Byron's muse, and much as he rejoiced that its pernicious influence was in some degree counteracted by the n.o.ble effusions of the French rhapsodist, he still rendered full justice to the great genius of the British bard. He calls him in one of his last works, ”the wonderful English poet--perhaps the greatest--certainly the most remarkable poet of our times:”[9]--an encomium which Byron's admirers may learn to appreciate, when they remember who his contemporaries were, and who the critic was, that p.r.o.nounced this judgment.
[8] See his History of Literature, vol. 2. New edition in German.
[9] Philosophie des ebens, page 21.
[10] See the Preface to the Lectures on Dramatic Literature, in the French translation.
[11] See Sammtliche werke. vol. x. p. 267.
[12] Concordia, page 59.
[13] Concordia, page 363.
[14] See Concordia.
[15] In a number of the Concordia for 1820, Adam Muller frankly declared his opinion, that all the friends of social order would soon concur in the necessity of re-establis.h.i.+ng the const.i.tution of the three estates. This is language which at Vienna is as bold as it is auspicious.
[16] Those political changes which since Schlegel's death have occurred in the British const.i.tution, while they have deprived property of much of its legitimate influence, have caused intelligence to be even less represented than heretofore in the legislature.
[17] Philosophische Schriften. vol. ii.
[18] See Concordia, page 66.
[19] According to the just remark of Burke, the states-const.i.tution was in latter ages, better preserved in the Republics than in the monarchies of Europe.--See his letters on a regicide peace.
[20] Among these great conservatives, M. de Bonald is the only one who can be regarded as favourable to Absolutism. As long as this great writer deals in general propositions, he seldom errs; but when he comes to apply his principles to practice, then the political prejudices in which he was bred, and which a too limited course of reading has failed to correct--lead him sometimes into exaggerations and errors. On the whole he is as inferior to Burke as a publicist, as he is superior to him as a metaphysician.
[21] This view of the matter is confirmed by the high authority of the great Catholic philosopher--Molitor. Speaking of Sch.e.l.ling and his disciples, he says, (in the words of his recent French translator,) _Quoique leurs premier ouvrages ne respirent pas encore entierement l'esprit pur et veritable_, mais soient entaches plus ou moins de pantheisme ou de naturalisme, comme cela etoit presque necessaire a une epoque encore si profondement enfoncee dans l'incredulite et l'orgueil, cependant leurs principes ont eveille l'esprit religieux, et donne une base plus profonde aux verites de cet ordre. C'est dans ce sens qu'on a retravaille toutes les sciences, et l'on peut dire que ces hommes ont plus contribue a conduire vers la religion, que cette mult.i.tude de compendium dogmatiques du siecle dernier. He then adds, ”Ou peut se faire une idee de la direction religieuse de la physique par les ecrits de Steffens, Schubert, Pfaff, et Baader. Cet esprit conduira encore a de plus grands resultats; et bientot de nouvelles decouvertes faites au ciel etoile, sur la terre et dans son interieur, aussi bien que dans l'organisme, affermiront et mettront dans une nouvelle lumiere ces hautes verites connues des anciens, mais que le sens stupide des modernes rejetait comme des songes et des superst.i.tions.” p.p.