and is unquestionably the cheapest book ever published. It _forms a necessary introduction_ to _THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON_, by M. A. THIERS, _NOW IN COURSE OF PUBLICATION_, and the two works present a complete
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In the present volume we find valuable extracts, given from their prose writings. Although the writers follow in chronological order, and LUTHER stands at the head of his intellectual brethren, the longest s.p.a.ce is allowed to those who claim our greatest attention; and GOETHE therefore occupies the most conspicuous position both in the specimens given and the selection of the pieces. GOETHE is a writer who requires most of all to be studied; while others, as SCHILLER, in his pa.s.sionate mood and ideal longings, requires no silent and incessant reflection, because he works his effects immediately by rousing the depth of our nature. Next to GOETHE, SCHILLER appears in an article upon Nave and Sentimental Poetry, a bold effort of him, the success of which is however yet very disputed, to cla.s.sify every produce of Art according to the impressions made upon the reader, and to dispense with the various and c.u.mbersome forms of the departments into which we have been accustomed hitherto to arrange all subjects bearing upon poetry. The department upon which SCHILLER enters here, belongs properly to the philosophy of Art; to the aesthetics, the investigation of the beautiful.
Foremost stands LESSING, the first critic of his time. Next to him comes HERDER, a devout philosopher, and a clear-sighted intellect, with the eyes of a child; curious to penetrate the maze and noisy market of the world, the variegated life among the ancients and the moderns in search for that beautiful humanity which he had sketched in his own mind, and which he would fain proclaim the order of an otherwise mysterious providence. The two brothers SCHLEGEL--William, the n.o.ble interpreter and translator of Shakspeare, and Frederic, known best by his investigations of the language and wisdom of the Indians--follow him, and MOSES MENDELSSOHN, a Jewish philosopher, closes the series of these writers. The treatise of the latter on the Sublime and Nave will be read with interest by everybody who has only an ordinary reading of ancient and modern poetry. Distinct from all the rest stand WIELAND and JEAN PAUL RICHTER, best known in this country by the appellation, of JEAN PAUL.
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MEMOIRS OF THE =COURT OF MARIE ANTOINETTE,= (QUEEN OF FRANCE.)
BY MADAME CAMPAN.
First Lady of the Bed-chamber to the Queen.
With a Biographical Introduction from "The Heroic Women of the French Revolution."
BY M. DE LAMARTINE.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
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