SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

Se-killers Briefwechsel mit KOrner. Von 1784 his zum Tode Schillors. Zweiter Thell- Dritter Theil—Vierter Theil. [Schiller's Correspondence with Korner, from 1784 to the Death of Schiller. Parts H., 111., tiod4V.] Verlag von Veit and Comp. Berlin• Fiction, The Half Sisters ; a Tale. By Geraldine Enamor Jewsbury, Author or " Vie." In two volumes Chapman and Han.

scarr.ratz's CORRESPONDENCE WITH BURNER.

ME first part or volume of this collection was reviewed in the Spectator of the 16th October last; the three parts now before us complete the

work. They contain the history of Schiller's efforts from 1789, when he made his debut as professor at Jena, to 1805, when his career closed. In equally prominent relief we have the subordinate but cordial and in- fluential cooperation of Korner in all his designs and all his performances : and around these two principal figures play a crowd of the most dis- tinguished intellects of Germany during the period ; some appearing but once, others alternately appearing and disappearing with more or less fre-

quency. The eidolon of Goethe, as the greatest and most intimately allied

to Schiller and Kilmer, recurs most frequently. Less distinct and less frequently recurring are the images of the Humboldts, the Schlegels, neck, Wieland, &c. Among the literati, some purely political characters also present themselves from time to time; of whom the most remarkable for himself is Von Stein,—seen, however, merely as a lad, the eleve of Goethe, with his career yet to begin.

The personal career of Schiller—that part of it to which the volumes now under review belong—resolves itself naturally into three periods : that of his professional career, which is brief, extending only from 1789 to 1791; that of his career as literary journalist, from 1791 to 1797, when he grappled in earnest with his greatest work, Wallenstein; and his second and ripened dramatical career, which closed only at his death.

The first of these three periods is little more than the sequel of the ini- tiatory struggles to attain a position. It is interesting through the fer- vid energy displayed, and the alternation of flattering hopes and relapses into despondency. Schiller's debat as professor in Jena was brilliant and intoxicating. It took place on the 26th of May 1789; and is thus de- scribed in a letter to Korner.

" I had chosen Reinhold's lecture-room for my debilt. It is of moderate extent, and seated for sixty, capable of holding about a hundred. Curiosity might have been expected to attract a greater number; but you are aware of my modesty. I was resolved not to confess bow many I expected. This modesty was brilliantly rewarded. My lecture-hour is from as to seven in the evening. The lecture- room was full by half-past five. From Reinhold's window I saw troop after troop corning up the street, as if they would have no end. I was anxious, but their numbers gratified me, and I gathered courage. Besides, I had steeled myself with the Idea that my lecture need fear no comparison with any that could be delivered in Jena; that I would be recognized as the superior mind. But the crowd grew so great that the antechamber and even the stairs were occupied, and many began to go Away. It now occurred to some of my friends that a larger room ought to be sought out. Griessbach's la-Other-in-law was among the crowd; and, on the suggestion being made to him, Griessbach's lecture-room was imme- diately thrown open to me, Now came a comical scene. All rushed out, and in a long train down St. John's Street, one of the largest in Jena, which was as it were strewed with students. As they ran who to be first at Griessbach's, the whole street became alarmed, and every window was crowded. At first the idea that a fire had broken out was caught up; and at the castle the guard was turned out. 'What's the matter?' was asked on all hands; and at last it was discovered The new professor is going to lecture:' I followed soon after, and had to ran the gauntlet through the assembled burghers. There were upwards of four hun- dred hearers in the roan: I vouldItcarcely find my way to the reading-desk amid the clapping and stamping, which is the manner of expressing approbation here. It was comparatively cool there. Before I had spoken ten words, I felt myself quite reassured, and read with a strong and steady voice that surprised me. I was heard distinctly on the outside. My lecture made an impression; it was talked of through the whole town • and I received attentions from students rarely bestowed on a new professor. They serenaded me, and assembled to cry vivat' tinder my windows. Next day my audience was equally great; and I felt quite at home in my new trade."

Sanguine in virtue of his poetical temperament, Schiller now fancied he saw the way clear before him. Like another Alnaschar, he began to count up his gains—multiplying an assumed concourse of pupils by the sessional fee, and arranging the distribution and application of this dream- money. He soon found that gratis lectures and feed lectures attract in very different proportions. The student goes to an university to prepare himself for a profession. The majority of students, as of all human beings, are commonplace characters. Comparatively few feel a perma- nent yearning-after impressions received from a man of genius. Most of the academic youth are only bent upon learning a remunerative trade ; and to that end, prefer to enrol themselves in the classes of professors who look upon their own business as a trade. Even the more enthu- siastic class must attend such lectures also, and have seldom money to spare for lectures of a higher character. It was Schiller's misfortune to be too good for his business. As a professor—a schoolmaster of a higher form—he was like the Pegasus yoked to the plough, who figures in one of his own poems. "The money came slowly in." To add to his troubles, in the programme of his first course of lectures he had called himself " Pro- fessor of History," because he intended to lecture upon history. In point of fact, he was "Professor of Philosophy!' In the German universities men are for the most part made professors in faculties, not of special sciences. There are the three definite faculties of Law, Physic, and Divinity, and a fourth entitled of Philosophy, including everything that cannot be brought to rank under the other three. This was Schiller's faculty; and though he was free to lecture upon any subject he pleased, he was not free to call himself professor of what he lectured upon. It so chanced, there was a nominal Professor of History in the University of Jena, who never lectured ; and, standing upon his legal right, that worthy compelled Schiller to forego the title and retain only the unmean- ing distinction of Professor in Philosophy.

Amid all these disappointments and annoyances, one enduring blessing was achieved by Schiller in this epoch of his life : he became a husband. His first letter to Kiirner after the marriage is a foretaste of the support and solace which that connexion brought him, through sickness and sor- row, even unto death.

" I am now six days a married man: the ceremony took place on the 22d, and this is the first leisure moment I have been able to devote to you. Not as if we

had spent the time in riotous jollity. Everything was quiet; but my mother-in- law and some visiters from Weimar were with us. Expect no details of what change I feel in myself. I have not yet come to reflection; but lam perfectly hap-

py. That is all I can say. The transition has been so noiseless and noteless, that I, who was always afraid of the ceremony, am surprised. • • • Last

Sunday, we left Jena; and my mother-in-law met us at Rudolstadt. We got our- selves married in'a little village church near Jena, with shut doors. Our secret was kept from everybody. We spent some pleasant days with my mother-in-law; and the very first days of our marriage have presented a picture of tranquil do-

mestic happiness. I feel happy, and convinced that I make my wife happy, and will continue to do so. • • • What a life I now lead 1 I look around me with a cheerful spirit; my heart inhales a continuous gentle satisfaction from without; my mind a lovely sustenance and recreation. My existence is brought into a har- monious equanimity: my .days pass without passionate excitement, tranquil and

clear. I attend to my business as formerly, and with more satisfaction to myself."

Towards the close of 1791, the spontaneous liberality of the Prince of Augustenburg and Count Sohimmelmann assured Schiller of an income

of 1,000 dollars annually for three years, to enable him to take care of his health. By this means, be was enabled to relax from his thankless academical labours, to indulge in occasional relaxation, and devote him- self to periodical literature; which for the next six years engrossed him almost exclusively. It was during this period that the long-projected Horen appeared, under the auspices of Schiller and Goethe. The cor- respondence of Schiller and Kiirner during its continuance is principally occupied with the business details of this undertaking, and the unreserved communications of the friends on questions of speculative science, artist- ical criticism, and historical investigation. Schiller's finest lyrical poems and his ballads first made their appearance in the Boren. To this period also are to be ascribed his most important essays on themes his- torical, moral, and testhetical. It was an epoch of his life rich in pro- ductiveness, bat of infinitely more interest as the period during which he was storing up and elaborating materials for his great dramatic works. It is not, however, a period of which the characteristics can be indicated by extracts. He had now obtained a firm footing; as is shown, among other incidents, by the fact that he not only commanded the highest prices for his works from the German booksellers, but was able to dic- tate to them advantageous terms for his friends.

The third period is, like the second, not easily susceptible of being in- dicated by extract. It commences with the genesis of Wallenstein, se- riously undertaken in 1797, and first brought upon the stage in 1799. Of this drama and most of the others we have on former occasions had opportunity to express our opinions, and we will not indulge in repe- tition. It may be remarked, however, that although in subsequent dramas Schiller's touch became more firm, light, and masterly, for weight of matter none of them (with perhaps the exception of The Bride of Messina) comes near to Wallenstein. Something of the same kind is apparent in the novels of Walter Scott: the earlier ones, beginning with Waverley and ending with The Heart of Mid Lothian, are in- finitely more full of life and the freshness of nature than those Which fol- lowed. The first works of Schiller and Scott, in the true departments of each, were formed of materials which had been accumulating and ma- turing in their minds during the whole of their previous lives : those which ensued were themes external to their habitual thoughts, not iden- tified with theirbeings, though handled with the skill of masters in art. During this epoCli, fame accompanied independent circumstances. Schiller was now acknowledged in Germany, and in no small degree throughout Europe, as among his countrymen second only to Goethe, if indeed even to him.

Allusion has been made to the numerous notorieties of literature of whom we catch glimpses in this Correspondence. Schiller's judgments of character are in general strikingly just. In one instance he fails singu- larly—in the preference he assigns to the no doubt distinguished William von Humboldt, over his far more original, comprehensive, and powerful brother. It is curious, now that Alexander von Humboldt's mighty career verges to its close, to read the following mistaken anticipations regarding it by the eagle-eyed genius of Schiller.

"About Alexander I cannot come to a satisfactory judgment: but I fear that, with all his talents and restless activity, he will accomplish nothing of moment in his science. I can detect not a spark in him of interest in pure contemplation; and strange though it may sound, with great acquirements, I find in him a de- ficient susceptibility—the worst possible defect with regard to such subjects as he deals with. His is a naked, sharp faculty of apprehension, which, without any modest misgivings, seeks to measure nature in its unfathomable abysses, and, witn an audacity to me inconceivable, to make his formulae, which are often empty words and always narrow conceptions, the standard of its greatness. He appears to me too small a man and possessed of too coarse an organ to succeed in what he has undertaken. He has no imagination; and, on that account, seems to want what is indispensable in his branch of knowledge. Alexander presents to many in a more imposing aspect than his brother, because he has the knack of setting himself off But in respect of positive worth they are not to be compared, so much more deserving is William of'veneration."

Kilmer was this time nearer the mark.

" Your judgment of Alexander von Humboldt seems to me too severe. I have not read his book on the nerves, and know him in a manner only from conver- sation; but even though deficient in imagination, he may do much for natural science. His efforts to measure and anatomize everything imply clear discern- ment; and without this, the student of nature can effect little. Nor is it a fault that he, a mathematician, applies measure and number to every subject within his sphere. He seeks at the same time to arrange the materials which he sepa- rates by analysis as a whole, does not despise hypotheses which extend his field of inquiry, and is thus instigated to new investigations of nature. Men of this class are too busy in their own sphere to take much notice of what goes on out of it. This gives them an appearance of hardness and heartlessness." Korner made allowance for what Schiller forgot, that strong frames arc often somewhat unshapely in youth : maturity is requisite to give fulness of proportion and seemliness of outline. It is curious enough that Schiller denies to Humboldt the very qualities which are most charac- teristic of his genius. But the same error might have been made with respect to Shakspere, by an acute observer who knew him only from his Venus and Adonis. In that youthful work the sharp severing understanding predominates ; in the great dramas of the poet's riper years it is the impassioned imagination which masses everything. On more than one occasion Schiller manifested the workings of that in- structive desire of political action which is inherent in all great minds. His letters entitled 2Esthetical Education of Mankind are in reality a political treatise; and at the time of the French King's trial he seriously contemplated publishing an address to the French People. K.orner was from his official position a political character; and his political notions were materially influenced by the power which Schiller exercised over him. The part which Kramer played as a civilian in the reawakening of Germany pre- vious to the war of liberation is, in this country, less known, but was in point of fact much more important than his son's. That son we see here as an active, intelligent, promising boy. The appearance of young Von Stein has already been alluded to. Here also we encounter Von Dalberg, the future Prince Primas of Frankfort. In short, many of the champions on both sides of the contest which ended in the reanimation of Germany are here seen training themselves for a battle-field of which that' bad as yet no foreboding. These glimpses are more than wontedly interesting at this moment, when the national spirit of Germany, that since 1815 had been in a state of suspended animation, appears to be resuming its great task of shaping out a nation mighty as France or England, and entirely distinct in its characteristics from either.