FTER the intellectual and religious stir of the Reformation, literature in Germany, instead of springing into new life and flourishing, as in England and France, became a dreary desert, slightly relieved by a few oases of little productiveness. The country was devastated with war and bloodshed; the princes, careless of letters, were competing for absolute power; the people, harassed and tax-ridden, were beaten into sullen silence. Pious souls turned in horror from the present evil world and expressed their longing for a better country in devout hymns. Learned men sought solace in peaceful studies. Those impelled to write imitated foreign works-English, French, Italian-or translated ancient classics. The German language, despised and neglected, became corrupt, and was then decked out with foreign phrases. Preachers interlarded their homely prose with Latin quotations, making what Leibnitz called "misch-masch." The most noted user of this medley was the eccentric popular preacher known as Abraham a Sancta Clara (1642-1700).

Yet in the same century there appeared some signs of improvement. In imitation of the Italian academies, societies were formed for the culture of the mother tongue. The earliest of these literary unions was "The Palm Order," or "Fruit-bearing Society," formed at Weimar in 1617, and including several princes and noblemen. Certain schools of

poetry are also recognized as belonging to this time. The most important was the First Silesian School, the head of which was Martin Opitz (1599-1639), pastoral poet and laureate to the emperor. Though this school imitated foreign models, it banished foreign words, and improved poetic metre and diction. Of the second Silesian school Hoffmanswaldau (1618-1679) was the chief representative; he was at times sentimental and sensuous, and again bombastic and extravagant. Lohenstein (1635–1683), who belonged to this school, was the first to make popular the story of the ancient German hero, Hermann, in his romance of "Arminius and Thusnelda." His dramas were full of absurdities, set off with spectacular effects.

In the seventeenth century no one could have believed that the reorganization and future greatness of Germany was to be wrought out from the little electorate of Brandenburg. In no part of the empire had the ravages of the Thirty Years' War been more disastrous. Berlin, the capital, had but three hundred citizens left. The Hohenzollern princes were unrelenting autocrats. The Great Elector (1640-1688) suppressed municipal freedom. His grandson, Frederick William, the first king of Prussia, built up the first standing army of Europe by trampling upon the rights of men. But these stern soldier kings made public service their watchword, and that principle has made Prussia the head of Germany to-day. The great Frederick, though as fond of literature as his father was a despiser of it, wasted no patronage on the poets of the Fatherland. He once exclaimed, in mingled German and French, "I have never read a German book, and I speak German like a coachman." Voltaire, when residing at his court in 1750, wrote, "I am here still in France. We all talk in our own language, and men educated at Königsberg know many of my poems by heart. German is left for soldiers and horses." Yet the leaven had then been working for a century.

The greatest genius of the interregnum, whose writings awakened philosophic thought, and gave a new impulse to the German mind, was Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz (1646– 1716). Though he pleaded for the culture of his native

tongue, he composed his most important works in Latin and French. A statesman as well as a philosopher, he was often engaged in diplomatic service. As a mathematician he had a controversy with Sir Isaac Newton in regard to the discovery of the differential calculus, the honor of which both claimed. In his "Théodicée" he maintained that the actual world is the best possible, and that evil, whether physical or moral, is necessary to the attainment of strength and virtue. For this optimism Leibnitz was ridiculed by Voltaire, under the name of Dr. Pangloss. Christian Wolf (1679-1745), a disciple of Leibnitz, did much to propagate his master's ideas. Though banished from Prussia in 1723, he returned when the great Frederick ascended the throne in 1740. The philosophical labors of Leibnitz and Wolf prepared the way for the revival and reform of German literature, finally effected by the genius of Lessing.

Yet other causes tended to the same end. There was literary as well as religious sympathy between North Germany and England. An important controversy arose between the admirers of the French school and those who looked to

England for better models. The pedantic Gottsched, of Leipsic (1700-1766), was the leader of the former party, and Bodmer, of Zurich (1698-1783), the exponent of the latter. Gottsched translated Racine and Addison's "Cato;" Bodmer translated Milton's "Paradise Lost" and Pope's "Dunciad;" and he also edited part of the "Nibelungenlied." Neither was successful in original work; the Saxon having tried dramatic and the Swiss epic poetry, taking the Deluge as his theme. As critics, Bodmer's party prevailed, and Gottsched, who had been a literary dictator, was driven into obscurity. Of the Anacreonticists of the time, F. von Hagedorn (17081754) was an imitator of Horace; but C. F. Gellert (17161769) in his "Fables" claimed originality. Most of the literary tribe translated or imitated the contemporary English poets and novelists. Macpherson's "Ossian," fully accepted as a revelation of ancient northern poetry, helped to spread the literary Anglomania. "Father Gleim" (1719-1803) was a noted patron of poets, and himself wrote patriotic songs for the Prussian cause.

But the most remarkable product of the sympathy for English literature is seen in Klopstock's epic, "The Messiah," which began to appear in 1748 and was completed in 1773. Undoubtedly inspired by Milton's work, it aimed to be a more truly evangelical poem, but the German's diverse genius failed to give unity and force to his undertaking. It was composed in hexameter verse, and its best parts are the similes and descriptions; yet even these are sometimes unduly prolonged.

A still more commanding genius was the learned Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781). After writing on English models the drama "Miss Sara Sampson," he chose a national theme in "Minna von Barnhelm," and endeavored to establish a truly national drama. For this purpose he founded a theatrical review, in which he explained the principles of dramatic art. Later he became librarian at Wolfenbüttel, and among other work discussed in his "Laokoön" the theory of ancient art. In this he freely criticized the ideas of J. J. Winckelmann (1717–1768), who had sacrificed his life to the study of this subject. Important as was Lessing's influence on art and literature, his ultimate aim was to promote the unity of mankind in thought and action. This was set forth in his elaborate philosophical essay "On the Education of Mankind," published anonymously. His defence of religious toleration was presented in a more striking form in his drama, "Nathan the Wise," which was founded on the unique personality of Moses Mendelssohn.

C. M. Wieland (1733-1813), a disciple of Bodmer, began with pietistic verses, but soon adopting Epicurean views, devoted his busy pen to the amusement of the people, so that it was said that "Wieland's muse had cast off her nun's dress, and was attired as a fashionable lady." His best poem is the romantic story "Oberon," and his prose romances include "Agathon," "The Abderites," and "Aristippus," in which the form and scenery are ancient, but the spirit modern. literary journal, The German Mercury, published at Weimar, was long regarded as an authority in its field. Wieland was the immediate precursor of Goethe, and though less able, manifested the same spirit.

His

FREDERIC HAGEDORN.

THE light-hearted Hagedorn in his mode of life resembled Charles Lamb. For twenty years he was clerk in the English factory at Hamburg, but devoted his hours out of office to literary work-songs, fables, and stories. Born in 1708, he had entered on the study of law when his father's death compelled him to leave the University of Jena. As secretary to the Danish minister, he spent two years in England and became well acquainted with English literature. His character is readily seen in his poem on "The Merry Soap-boiler." He died in 1754.

THE MERRY SOAP-BOILER.

A STEADY and a skillful toiler,
John got his bread as a soap-boiler,
Earned all he wished, his heart was light,
He worked and sang from morn till night.
E'en during meals his notes were heard,
And to his beer were oft preferred;
At breakfast, and at supper, too,

His throat had double work to do;

He oftener sang than said his prayers,

And dropped asleep while humming airs:

Until his every next-door neighbor

Had learned the tunes that cheered his labor,

And every passer-by could tell

Where merry John was wont to dwell.

At reading he was rather slack,

Studied at most the almanac,

To know when holidays were nigh,

And put his little savings by;
But sang the more on vacant days,

To waste the less his means and ways.