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eeafe to speak, to exift; his foul must be transfufed into the fictitious perfonages of his drama; the delufion must be perfect, and a new creation rifing before our eyes claim all our interest and fympathy; melt the heart with the foftnefs of paffion, or fhake the foul with grateful terrors.'

Göethé, the author of fome admired German tragedies, is a writer of high originality. The greateft excentricity in opinion, and fingularity of compofition, diftinguish the fchool of which he is the founder. The fiery fpirit of enthufiafm, and overflowing fenfibility, which prevades the Sorrows of Werter, is already known to us by the medium of tranflation. Marks of the fame nervous energy, the fame glow of paffion, and beautiful fimplicity, which diftinguish that fingular production are visible in his dramatic compofitions. Goethe in thefe manifefts a foftness and tenderness of the most artless and touching kind, peculiarly his own. While he is capable of exerting the eleva tion of his genius in the higher provinces of dramatic effect, the fofter ftrings of the heart acknowledge an influence in his pieces, not always connected with German tragedy. His female characters, in particular, poffefs a variation of feature which marks the hand of a master, and are drawn with strokes more delicate than the dramas of his country commonly prefent. Of this the exquisitely feminine traits of his Stella, and the artleff nefs of youthful fimplicity in the unfortunate heroine of Clavigo, are ftriking inftances.'

The beauties of Schiller are thofe belonging to original genius. Neglecting that negative merit which is attained by a tame and faultlefs character of tragedy, he hazards every thing in purfuit of ftrength, elevation, and novelty of thought, Imagery the most vivid and daring, fituations fingular and impreffive, the verbum ardens pufhed almost to rafhnefs, a fucture of language full of nerve, rich and dignified, mark every page of the writings of Schiller. Like our own Shakspeare, he fometimes delights and affects, even while he violates every rule, and leaves far behind him the decorum of the scene and the ftrictness of propriety; fatisfied to bid the human heart glow with the fire of communicated paffion, or the imagination expand to the grandeur of conception. In the characters of Schil ler traces of high originality are abundant. Those of the mar quis Pofa, in Don Carlos; lady Milford, Verrina, and some others, are marked by features equally new and ftriking, As a delineator of character, Schiller, however, is rather diftin guifhed by a strong and bold outline than by the little nicer and more delicate touches of difcrimination, which mark the pictures of Shakspeare, and stamp the perfonages drawn by his poetic fancy with the truth and reality of nature herself,

The fpirit of Schiller is marked and peculiar he is the fchylus of the German drama. He feems, by a native im

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pulfe,

pulfe, to have felt his daring pencil directed to thofe feenes of horror and affright, from the contemplation of which, minds lefs energetic have firunk in difmay. Fiery and unfettered, his genius has delighted to feek the loftier and more inacceffible regions of tragic poetry; to expand, as in its native element, amidit the fhock and tempeft of the fiercer paffions, which convulfe the foul and lay defolate the breaft of man; defcending , little to the lower provinces of dramatic effect or the minutiae of the fene. In the bands of Schiller, the strings of the human heart are fruck with a boldnefs approaching to temerity. On the milder paffions, by which, in the scenes of other dramatitis, the foul is gently moved, and the bofom taught to vibrate with foft and delicious forrow, he has difdained to fix his hold. It is not the tear, which in the tender diftrefs, the languishments of difappointed paffion, fuffufes the melting-eye of feasibility, that his poetic fictions are to call forth; but the gush of the heartfelt anguifh, fympathizing with the laft worst strokes of man's mifery, fhuddering at the view of calamity, hopeless and irremediable. It is to aftonifh, to terrify, to shake the foul, that in the conftruction of his dramas the grander efforts of his genius are directed. In the agonies of defpairing love, in fituations where man is bowed to the grave with irretrievable woe, in the dreadful councils of banditti, and the horror of conspiracies and plots, he has fought for fcenes alone congenial to the wildness of his fancy.'

The faults of Schiller are the wildness and the irregularity of his plots, the horror excited by the fituations and circumstances introduced, and the apparently overftrained efforts to ftamp conception with fire and energy.' The gloomy horror of the fcene, tranflated from his play of Cabal and Love;' the cool determination of Maria (having been constrained to defert her lover, to make him believe her falfe), to die, and the preparations she makes for this event, are, we think, unequalled. The nearly fimilar fituation of Clariffa is in a different flyle, and greatly inferior: Clariffa too was at least indifcreet. We ought not to leave our author's dramatic papers without remarking, that there are many excellent obfervations on the Grecian drama, the French stage, and Shakspeare, particularly tending to illuftrate the German dramatifts, and the diftinction noticed by other authors, between defcriptions of emotions, and the real language of paffion.

Of the more mifcellaneous papers, thofe are, we think, the beft on the tender foothing melancholy which follows the acuter feelings of forrow; on benevolence, and the character of the mifanthrope: but our article is fufficiently extended. We have been much pleafed with this work, and, in our review of it, have rather given fpecimens of the varied entertainment which it contains, than followed the author minutely in either department; we fall receive the fecond volume with great pleafure.

A View

A View of England towards the Clofe of the Eighteenth Century.

Tranflated from the Ori-
2 Vols.
2 Vols.

By Fred. Aug. Wendeborn, LL. D. ginal German, by the Author himself. Boards. Robinsons.

WE

8vo.

125.

WE are informed that the original of this work made its ap pearance in Germany about five years ago; it was much read upon the continent, and has been tranflated into other languages; but the author entertained not the most distant idea of its ever being translated into English; until hearing that more than one English verfion of it, by different perfons, was about to be undertaken, he was reluctantly induced to take upon himfelf the execution of that defign, from an apprehenfion that those tranflators might not do juftice to the original. Pity, indeed, had a work so much abounding with fenfible obfervations been expofed to nifreprefentation by the ignorance or inadvertency of inadequate verfionifts. The motive is fuch as must entirely, exculpate the author from any fufpicion of vanity; and we are glad that the refult of it affords us room to congratulate our readers on the appearance of one of the most accurate English tranflations we have ever known executed by a foreigner.

We learn from the preface, that the author came from his' own country to this at the age of scarcely five and twenty; and, for nearly two and twenty years, he has lived in London as the minister of a German congregation, which purpofely erected a chapel for him. Concerning the work itself, which the author declares he wrote with no other view than that of instructing his own countrymen, we shall extract a few particulars from the preface.

Many things, therefore, we are told, in the original, must appear uninteresting to a well-informed Englifhman; and for this reafon, fundry paffages, relative to matters which are fufficiently known in this country, are omitted in the tranflation. Indeed, fome whole chapters have been left our, as eu-, tirely ufelefs to an English reader; fuch, for instance, as that which contains inftructions to foreigners, who, for the first time, arrive in England. In truth, abridging the original, here and there, was ablolutely neceffary to prevent a work, which might be inftructive and entertaining to Germans, from becoming tedious to the better informed of this country.'

The author of these volumes has kept, as much as was in his power, the motto, which he has prefixed to his title-page, conftantly in his mind; and has endeavoured to confine himfelf, as far as human imperfection will permit, ftrictly within. the boundaries of truth and impartiality; and to advance nothing but what he derived eitler from his own obfervation and experience,

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experience, or from the teftimony of perfons of credit and ve racity. He is, indeed, confident, that the work itself contains internal evidence of his having confcientiously adhered to the just precept, Speak of me as I am. After having spent the best part of his life among this nation, he is convinced that the number of intelligent and candid perfons which it contains, is fo great, that he chearfully fubmits what he has written to their impartial judgment, and is not apprehenfive that they will pronounce against him an unfavourable verdict. He is, however, neither fo unacquainted with the differences of opinion among mankind, or with the impoffibility of pleasing all parties, as not to be aware, that his impartiality, in some infances, may be liable to fufpicion; nor is he fo weak as to fuppofe that his work can be wholly free from errors: but he has learned, in the courfe of his life, to fubmit with refignation to the former; and he can produce more than one inftance, wherein he has, moft readily, acknowledged and retracted the latter, on being convinced of them by reason, and with candour.

Should it be faid, that feveral things which he has related, and fome observations which he has advanced, are not altoge ther flattering, he conceives that no apology for them can be neceflary, if they are well founded. It was the intention of the author to prefent a view of England to his own country men, for whofe information he wrote, which was drawn on the spot from Nature; and though there appear, here and there, fome fhades in the picture, which none can be without, yet he is fure that the whole, compared with views of other countries, is pleafing and, brilliant. Thofe on the continent, whofe notions of this juftly refpected ifland, and its inhabitants, have been elevated too highly by unfaithful and romantic descriptions, may, on perusing this work, reduce their ideas more nearly to the ftandard of truth; but they will find, notwithstanding, fufficient reafon to excite their admiration, without calling in the aid either of romance or of exaggeration.'

The work begins with an account of the English conftitution; in which the author treats feparately of the king, the nobility, and the commons. This fubje&t having already been fully elucidated by M. De Lolme, an English reader can expect to meet with but little additional obfervation on the more effental points of the enquiry. Dr. Wendeborn, however, makes many pertinent remarks, which thow that he is not only well acquainted with the outlines of the English conftitution, but with the various fpeculations of modern politicians on particular parts of it. The following obfervations on the duration of parliaments, are fenfible and juft.

If the English think their Magna Charta fo facred as they pictend it to be, why have they deviated from the good inten

tions

tions of their Great Charter in favour of their liberties? Why do those who have a right to send reprefentatives, place an un limited trust in them for feven whole years, without knowing for what they fend them, the article of granting taxes, and drawing money out of their pockets, only excepted, of which in the prefent times they may always be extremely certain ? If parliaments lafted only for a year, or even for three, it would not be fo eafy as it is now, for a minifter of the crown to obtain a majority. The treafury may afford every feven years the expences of a general election; but if parliaments were annual, or triennial, it would foon be found, that the fums spent in procuring a majority could not be afforded, and elections would. of courfe be more free and more difinterested, because the public welfare would be the only intereft which the greater part of the electors would have in view. There has been of late years an annual motion made for triennial parliaments, but it muft ever be unsuccessful, while the minifter has a decided majority against it. Befides, even those who are not his friends, would hardly vote for fhortening the duration of parliaments, except they were certain of being re-chofen without much expence: for at prefent most of the members of the lower house, who have given themfelves great trouble to obtain a seat, recollect how difficult and expenfive a bufinefs it was. Shortening the duration of parliament muft, therefore, be the refult of the exertion of the people themselves; for as matters are circumstanced, it will hardly ever originate either from the crown, or from a majority of the house of commons.'

The next divifion of the work is on the English laws, courts of judicature, and the manner of adminiftering juftice. Our author obferves, that the manner of adminiftering juftice in England, is certainly fuperior to that which prevails at present in other countries. Among its pre-eminences, he reckons first the' trial by a jury, which he fhews, from a fhort hiftorical view, to be of ancient date, both in England and other countries; but, even in the former, to have met with great interruption, from the tyranny of fome of the kings.

The punishments which the English laws inflict upon offenders, are, in our author's opinion, far remote from that appearance of cruelty which is obfervable in the jurifprudence of other nations. He remarks, that it is not left to the difcretion of a judge or magiftrate, what kind of punishment he chooses to inflict upon offenders, but the laws themselves have, in most cafes, wifely specified the punishment for the different offences. The judge may moderate, but he can neither alter, nor increase it. The author feems to difapprove, if not of hanging, at least of the mode in which that capital punishment is conducted in this

country.

Indeed,

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