he "poured the whole golden treasure into her lap!" Who shall describe the gladness and holy gratitude of that moment? From the deep founts of feeling the tears gush up into the mother's eyes; and the noble countenance of Paul is glowing with unspeakable thankfulness and satisfaction. All the darkened days in which his soul had travelled with its cares and disappointments, are illumined and transfigured by the radiant contentment of that hour of success; and the whole landscape of his life,—until now so gloomy and over-clouded,-spreads bright and peaceful under a sky of shining hopes. It was not the glitter of the gold which dazzled him, though the money, in its way, was welcome,but it was the joy he had in the public recognition of his artistic powers; the sweet assurance that he had not toiled in vain; and the grand delight he felt in cheering the troubled days of his aged mother, this it was that made the beauty and the rapture which overflowed his soul. It seemed that here at length the current of his life, after long struggling with the rocks of stern impediment, had overleaped its most formidable obstacles, and that henceforward it would flow like a clear and pacific river through garden-lands of quietness and hope.

The success of his romance, however, made no difference, for the present, in his simple and unostentatious way of living. He very soon began a new romance, "Hesperus," working at it unweariedly before and after school hours. But in the spring of 1794, some of his pupils leaving him to enter the Gymnasium at Baireuth, and no others appearing in their places, Richter decided on giving up his school, took a better house at Hof than that which his mother had occupied, and installed the good lady as his housekeeper. Here he devoted himself exclusively to his literary pursuits, giving the freest and broadest range to his genius, and living meanwhile a life of stedfast and irreproachable uprightness. His highest and his humblest duties were alike honourably discharged; for, deeming himself called to represent poetical and excellent shapes of being, and to give utterance to lofty thoughts and pure and generous emotions, he saw that his object was not to be attained save by a corresponding purity of soul,-by

firmness and dignity of purpose,-by cheerfulness of mind and disposition,by a strict and resolute adherence to all the principles of noble conduct. To be a poet in his works, he saw that he must be a poet in his life; and this was the aim which he set before him, and he realised it with a completeness that has never been surpassed.

The "Hesperus" was finished about Midsummer, 1784, and sold to a publisher for two hundred Prussian dollars, a small sum for such a work; but it appears that Paul's writings did not as yet obtain a very extensive sale. They were exceedingly admired by a few; but to the general reading public they presented many difficulties, and could not be immediately appreciated. "Hesperus," however, served considerably to extend his fame. Letters of admiration poured in upon him from all quarters, and made up, by the delight they gave him, for the smallness of his pecuniary gains. New and important friendships arose out of the relations thus commenced; some of which were the means of introducing him into a more polished order of society than that in which he had hitherto been moving. Soon after the publication of "Hesperus," he was genially entertained by an intelligent Jewish merchant, named Emanuel, at his mansion in Baireuth. At Hof, Paul, like a prophet in his own country, had received but little honour; but here, only twenty-four miles distant, he was enthusiastically "lionised." The friendly reception he met with among the accomplished men and women of the city gave him such a predisposition for the place as to lead him, after many changes, to make choice of it as a place of constant residence. Here, too, during his visit, Paul found himself, for the first time in his life, in a regularly appointed "study," furnished with articles of luxury and taste, and surrounded with elegant and pleasant outlooks. Speaking afterwards of the pleasure he had received throughout his stay, he said, in his figurative way of speaking, "In Baireuth, my moments were roses, and my hours polished brilliants ;" and it was not without a sigh at the remembrance, when he reflected that such days could not last.

He returned to Hof to plan and execute new works. Very little remained of the two hundred dollars received

for " Hesperus," after dividing the greater part of the amount between his mother and his brother; so that, as Richter said, he was "yet compelled, like a bird, to learn to sing in a darkened cage." His next book, "Quintus Fixlein," appears to have grown out of the circumstances of his present life; its object being to solve the famous Xerxes' riddle, not in the way of creating new and unimagined joys, "but through the enchantment of fancy to bring out the infinite riches of the old." The work is known to some extent among English readers, in the admirable translation by Carlyle. Not long afterwards, in 1796, appeared the "Blumen, Frucht, und Dornenstücke" (Flower, Fruit, and Thorn Pieces) in which is contained the wonderful dream of the "Dead Christ," whereby, through Madame de Stael's translation, Richter was first introduced to foreign readers. The same piece is translated in the second volume of Carlyle's "Miscellanies," and is one of those things which, once read, can never be forgotten.

Among the advantages acquired by Ritcher at this period was the admiration and regard of the venerable "Father Gleim," who, though now eighty years of age, had discovered in the author of "Hesperus" and "Fixlein," a new and extraordinary man of genius, and, supposing he might be gaining more applause than profits, wrote to him a gay and kindly letter, under a feigned name, enclosing fifty Prussian dollars. Another letter reached him about the same time, from an accomplished lady, named Sophie la Roche, that charming "grandmother" who was afterwards so beautifully depicted by Bettine. This

kindly lady said to him: "It is impossible that the man whose susceptible soul and richly-thoughtful mind hovers over all the leaves of 'Hesperus,' can take it ill if a good Frau thanks him for the agreeable hours she has enjoyed through that wonderful book; if she bless him, that with so wonderful a genius he is so good a son, so good a brother.

í tell you frankly, that I wish to know more of you, for to me your appearance is full of truth and reverence. Heaven make you as happy as it has made you precious to others; and when you read or hear my name,

remember to say, "That lady is my friend.'"

It seems that Richter's later writings had been admired by no class of persons so greatly as by women of eminence and rank. The surprises he sustained from such quarters were enough to turn a strong man's head. In March, 1796, he received a letter, with a noble lady's signature, from Weimar, lavishing the highest praises on his genius, and informing him that his works were much applauded by Wieland and Herder, and other persons of distinction. In a short time, Paul is invited to repair to that illustrious little capital, and there to undergo another spell of lionising. He proceeds thither in this same year of 1796, and is brilliantly entertained and fêted by the literati of the city; and participates, on the largest scale, in "æsthetic tea," at the tables of innumerable accomplished women who had become acquainted with his writings. A voluminous correspondence, with all manner of titled and noted persons, follows-his letters to splendid ladies decidedly preponderating, and some of them presenting evidences of romantic sentiment and a transcendental species of flirtation. Paul seems not unlikely to lose his peace of mind; in other words, if he be not careful, he will be falling dangerously in love. To say nothing of a world of fairy shapes, there is, for instance, a certain impetuous Madam Von Kalb (the Weimar lady who first wrote to him), hovering about him with an indescribable fascination, and, to all appearance, captivating him "by the powerful enchantment of her character." If one were in Richter's place, it would seem desirable to vanish somewhere, or otherwise make proposals. But proposals are out of the question; for Madam Kalb, as you may perceive, is a married lady -married, as tradition says, unhappily -but, of course, not the less, and beyond redemption, married. harm, however, comes of it; it is mere Platonic firework-dangerous to play with, perhaps, like experiments in electricity-but not necessarily fatal. Paul finally escapes from it with a whole skin, and not materially damaged in his affections.

No

We have not space to give an account of all the homage and attention whereof Richter was the object during his brief sojourn in Weimar. Herder, writing

to Jacobi, said of him :-"Heaven has sent me a treasure in Richter that I neither deserved nor expected. Every time we are together he opens anew the treasures that the three wise men brought, and the star goes always before him. I can only say that he is all heart, all soul; an harmonious tone in the great golden harp of humanity, in which there are so many broken and discordant strings." Shortly after his return to Hof, the Princess of Hohenlohe came and entreated him to take charge of the education of her sons. The offer was alluring, inasmuch as the income would be handsome, and, by accepting it, Paul would have " a beautiful residence on the Rhine." But his answer was, "That he was henceforth determined to educate no children but his own-the books, namely, which he designed to write; and that he had so much to say, that if death should surprise him at his writing table in his eightieth year, it would be yet too early."

So, with a fixed and steady purpose, he proceeded with what he conceived to be his only proper work. Prior to visiting Weimar, he had commenced his great romance, the "Titan :" but after the literary and feminine fascinations of that city, Richter's spirits, on returning to his Patmos at Hof, were too much depressed to go on with it to his satisfaction. He therefore occupied himself during the winter with two of his minor works, "Jubelsenior" and the "Kampaner Thal." The latter (of which we have an English translation) is a powerful discourse on the immortality of the soul, and is reckoned "one of the most purely serious and poetically beautiful of all the author's minor works." The "Jubelsenior" is a touching and simple representation of a marriage festival, celebrated by an aged clergyman and his wife, at the same time with the consecration of the church, and the introduction of a new young pastor, who is in love with the adopted child of the old people. Jean Paul delighted in all these humble, simple religious ceremonies; and the picture presented in this work is the expression of his sympathy with the lonely and lowly joys and aspirations that subsist in silent and secluded

places. The love of the young people is also mingled in the history, making a sweet, gentle under-tone of passion

in the staid solemnity of the piece, and brightening, as with rays of hope, the quietude of resignation.

In the summer of 1797, while Richter was at the baths of Eger, in Saxony, enjoying the society of a multitude of brilliant and distinguished persons, and glowing under the smiles of a rich and beautiful young widow from Switzerland, he was startled by receiving the intelligence of his mother's death. With a sorrowing and remorseful heart he hastened back to Hof, to gaze for the last time upon the honoured countenance whose eyes he should now behold no more. He found her looking calm and happy, and even youthful; the traces of her age being softened and refined by the hallowing touch of death. It only remained for him to have her carried to that last dwelling of the weary, where, as our gifted Tennyson expresses it,

"She will not hear the north wind rave,

Nor, moaning, household shelter crave, From winter rains that beat her grave.' Her cares and sorrows are all ended, and whatsoever there remains of rest and immortality, it is now opened to her as the beginning of a new existence. And the mourner sits him down to think of the days that are now gone, when the buried one had shared with him the burden of his disappointments, and witnessed the advent of his better fortunes; and of all the love which she had ever borne him, and of the meek humility with which she had sometimes murmured under the hardships of her lot. And among her treasured household stores he found a faded book, wherein, in times gone by, she had set down the scanty earnings of her midnight spinnings; and this, with a tenderness and regret unspeakable, he pressed closely to his breast as a most precious memorial never to be parted with. "If all other manuscripts are destroyed," said he, "yet will I keep this, good mother! where the misery of thy nights is recorded, and where, in weakness and pain, thy thread of life is drawn out." And with the sanctity of death about the house, he remained in it, sad and still, for many days. But life in the frame of man is powerful, and cannot anchor always by the shores of a gloomy memory; and so, with a spirit subdued and chastened, he turns again to explore the untraversed waters of existence

that yet lie broad and dimly seen before him under the horizon of the coming years.

Strange, perhaps, it may seem,-but yet how natural to a man stricken in his affections,-Richter fled back to the baths of Eger, to find, in the sympathy of the fascinating Swiss widow, some suitable consolation for his sorrow. She must have exercised a great charm over him, for he wrote to his friend Otto: "I have found the first female soul that I can completely unite with without weariness, without contrariety; that can improve me while I improve her.

She is too noble and too perfect to be eulogised with a drop of ink. She belongs to that class of women who, with firm steps, go straight forward on their path, and do not turn, or observe the gazers on the right or left. She has more love in her heart than in her eyes, and, therefore, she is not understood, nor happy; and her clear reason and brilliant fancy surpass the glow of her imagination." With this lady, he afterwards carried on an interesting correspondence; but, as was the case in other instances of Paul's experience, nothing further sprung from it.

Sometime in 1798, Richter took his final leave of Hof, and settled himself at Leipzig. Here he entered his younger brother at the University; and, after living some time as the guest of an eminent bookseller, he took up his quarters in his old lodgings in the Peterstrass. He seems to have lived in pleasant intercourse with the best society of the place, and to have followed his vocation as an author in the midst of all suitable and convenient furtherances. Emilie Von Berlespsh (the interesting Swiss widow) had purchased a country house at a short distance from the city; and thither Paul was privileged to repair whensoever he felt inclined, having "a quiet, retired room fitted up for him expressly as a study, where he could retire if he wished to be alone; or, if he desired society, he might have it "with her and her friends in her apartments." Upon all occasions, we hear, he met a glowing heart, and a warm disinterested friendship. "I find in her," said Paul, "a soul that has not once fallen beneath my ideal, and I should be wholly happy in her friendship, if she would not be too happy with me."

In this same year Richter accompanied Emilie to Dresden, where a new and hitherto unimagined world was opened to him in its widely-renowned galleries of art. On his return to Leipzig a distressing discovery awaited him. "His brother Samuel, upon whose account and to promote whose education he had come to Leipzig, a youth of good talents and originally of a noble disposition, had fallen into dissipated company, and become involved in a deep passion for gaming. He had taken advantage of Richter's absence to break open his desk, and abstract from it a hundred and fifty rix dollars." With this sum he departed; and, though Paul performed many journeys in search of him, and would have readily forgiven him and received him back, he never saw him more. Subsequently, indeed, he heard of him, and settled on him a small yearly sum sufficient for his maintenance. The youth led a wandering and irregular life, and at last died at a military hospital in Silesia.

After his brother's departure, Leipzig became insupportable to Richter as a place of residence. He accordingly left it, and for a while settled in Weimar. Here again he soon became pleasantly domesticated. "His reception,' we are told," was even more flattering than at first, as personal knowledge had confirmed the former admiration. All doors and all hearts, even the ducal, were opened to him." The noble and intellectual Duchess Amelia received him as a friend, and gave him suggestions which he wrought up in his works. With Herder, Wieland, and, in a less degree, with Göethe and Schiller, he lived on terms of free and pleasing intimacy; though ultimately with Goethe there was some estrangement, which, more or less, continued throughout life. For the rest, Richter appears to have been highly valued by all who knew him; and perhaps he now stood upon a higher elevation in the estimation of society and in his own than he had ever before attained.

So passed the autumn of 1798; but, in the month of January following, Madame von Kalb, returning from her country residence, dashed like an ominous comet into the Weimar circles, and very sensibly disturbed the harmony of their arrangements. She had persuaded her husband to consent to a

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divorce, and, as a consequence, insisted upon marrying our hero! She hinted, one night at Herder's, that such a consummation might be effected in the spring. But," says Richter, "I afterwards said to her decidedly, No! and, after a glow of eloquence from her, it stands thus, that she shall take no step for, and I no step against, the divorce. I have at last acquired firmness of heart. In this affair I am wholly guiltless. I can feel that holy, general love which I cannot, indeed, paint with this dark water; but it passes not beyond my dreams,"

However, no experience comes amiss to a man of poetic genius; and it would seem that the stormy passages of his life, arising out of his relations with the Kalbs and Berlespshs, were of unquestionable advantage to him in the way of enabling him to complete his "Titan." At this work he labours until the spring, when, instead of marrying the enchantress Kalb, he accepted an invitation to the Court of Hilburghausen, "from whose Duke," we are told, "he received the diploma of Legations-rath."* Here Paul is again bewitched by a certain Caroline von F, a maid of honour to the Duchess, and seems decidedly to think, "If I were united with her, my whole being, even the smallest stain, would be purified." The lady, indeed, appears to reciprocate his feelings, and for a time all goes joyous "as a marriage bell." But you are aware that "the course of true love never does run smooth;" and here, again, we find "objections on the part of friends,” and endless fastidious "botherations;" and, finally, the match is broken off, never more to be renewed. Richter, meanwhile, is so discomposed by the termination of the affair, as to grow tired of Weimar, and, for a change, he journeys to Berlin.

But before going, he contrived to get the first volume of "Titan" published, the same being dedicated to the hospitable Duchess and her three noble sistersall of whom had declared themselves Paul's intense admirers. Other works, of lesser note, he had produced, with a view to keep himself before the public while the "Titan" was in preparation. On arriving at Berlin, he found his fame had arrived before him; and,

* Counsellor of Legation.

accordingly, he was everywhere well received and entertained. And now, if the Fates will only be propitious, Richter shall certainly obtain a wife. He is now thirty-seven years of age, so that if he means to marry he had better lose no time. Many brilliant ladies are made known to him, and among them, Caroline Meyer, daughter of Dr. John Andrew Meyer, Professor of Medicine, and a member of the Royal Privy Council. As we have no space to spare for describing the particularities of the wooing, it may be as well to state at once that to this lady Richter was duly married on the 27th of May, 1801. The young wife, writing shortly afterwards to her father, declares herself to be happy beyond her utmost expectations:-"It will sound extravagant to you," she says, "if I say, the high enthusiasm which Richter excited in me has continually risen as we have entered into real life together. Never can a misunderstanding arise between us. This man so loves

me, that I have nothing to wish but that we may die together." Of her, in return, Jean Paul affirms, "Marriage has made me love her more romantically, deeper, infinitely more than before." And so, with the brightest prospects, they set up their household in the pleasant town of Meiningen.

All this, we suppose, is exactly as it should be; and, as henceforth Paul's life was for the most part prosperous and peaceful, there needs be little further said, in this place, respecting his fortunes or condition. After several changes of residence, he finally settled in Baireuth; and the remaining chief events of his life were the books which he produced and published. Shortly after his marriage, “Titan was completed, after being ten years in progress; and not much later, in 1803, appeared the "Flegeljahre,"—a work whose title Mr. Carlyle thinks may be freely translated "Wild Oats." Besides these, and the works already named in the course of our narrative, Richter's principal works are:-"Vorschule der Aesthetik" (Introduction to Esthetics); "Levana" (a Discourse on Education), translated into English; "Leben Fibels' (Life of Fibel); "Nicholaus Margraf;" "Katzenberger's Badereise" (Katzenberger's Journey to the Bath); "Schmelzle's Reise nach Flätz" (Schmelzle's Journey to Flätz); "A Eulogy on