clining in response in stately courtesy. So stands the old Kaiser Wilhelm, such a potentate as Germany has not seen for six hundred years, himself the living type of one of the most important changes of modern history, — the unification of Germany. It is a proud and perilous preëminence, and just as magnificent is the eminence before the world of the land which he rules. And what shall be said of this as bearing upon the question in hand? This melting away of barriers- accompanied as it is by a higher degree of freedom for the German citizen, by a national life in every way more dignified and stimulating- brings an alleviation of burdens and a general bettering of circumstances. Fields open for the German in every direction, so that he may vie on equal terms with the masterraces of the world, in spinning and casting, in buying and selling, in ploughing the sea and struggling for a foothold in far regions. It will not stimulate, but abate, the literary energy whose pressure has been so marvellous.

Said a shrewd German once, a citizen of our own country, at a convention of American teachers, when a disparaging comparison was made between American and German universities: " German universities have become great because the land has been oppressed. The trammelled people, for whom the outlets of trade, politics, manufacture, have been in past times so nearly blocked, were forced to spend energy in somewhat far-away scholarship. Hence, largely, the remarkable achievement." I believe the remark is wise, and admits of more

extended application. Not alone the erudition, but the splendid literary and philosophical development, would have failed, had there been elsewhere a sphere for power. Take Fichte; it is reasonable to say that he would not have been satisfied to spend his life in ideal dreamings, -he who, when opportunity offered, could talk with such direct practical eloquence to the German nation, if in his day there had been a chance for a man of the people among German statesmen. Take Schiller, -less a poet than a magnificent preacher and teacher; if he could have uttered himself unconstrainedly as an orator, he would have written fewer books. Or the grand Lessing, so full of ideas about tolerance, the alleviating of human misery, the breaking of chains in State and Church; if he could have spoken his divine passion directly, how he might have led the people! In his bondage he could only utter furtive criticism and indirect scorn of existing things, in "Minna von Barnhelm," "Emilia Galotti," and the "Nathan," masterpieces forever precious; but untrammelled, we can imagine that his masterpieces would have been of a different sort. In the days of tyranny, poetry, scholarship, philosophy were almost the German's only outlet. At the present time they are some among a multitude of outlets through which power can pour itself. What keeps America from greatness in these quiet fields? The diversion of power into politics and business. Hence the world calls to us in vain for a great poem, in vain for a work of the highest erudition; and those who strive to rear universities

among the great factories and marts are crippled and thwarted at every turn. The German, to be sure, as yet is far enough from having such freedom; he has habits, traditions, institutions, reaching down from the former time, to hamper and thwart; but somewhat as we are are the Germans, and the likeness in circumstances will grow greater.

CHAPTER XVIII.

GERMAN STYLE.

At the present day no foreign literature is affecting us so powerfully as that of Germany. It is worthy to exercise such an influence. There is no department in human effort in which the Germans are not abreast with the foremost, and in some directions they are leaders, of the world. As scholars, in several of the fine arts, above all as philosophical thinkers, their authority is surpassing. But great as have been the benefits coming to us through their influence, these have not been unalloyed.

1

"Persius," says old Cowley, "who, you use to say, you do not know whether he be a good poet or not, because you do not understand him, and whom therefore I say I know not to be a good poet.' Shall we accept as truth to-day this doctrine, which comes to us from the seventeenth century? Are writers of poetry, as well as prose, to be set down as not good if we cannot understand them? Yes; the first excellence of expression is for a writer or speaker to make his meaning clear.

It is impossible however to deny that a certain

1 Essay on Procrastination.

effectiveness may come from obscurity. The bugbear which in the daytime when clearly seen, we treat with indifference, becomes, when partly hidden by the night, a thing of terror. Beauty, which makes little impression when fully revealed, becomes entrancing if partially veiled. Give the imagination its opportunity, and it will conceive as existing behind the curtain a hideousness of danger, or a perfection of charm, far beyond what is really there. In the same way, taking every thing unknown for something magnificent, according to Tacitus in the "Agricola," we often credit with undue power and value unintelligible words.

ateness.

It is not often however that a writer dares to step forth openly in defence of obscurity. One such defence I know, and only one; very naturally, it is by Carlyle. It has in many cases its own appropriCertainly, in all matters of business or science, in all expositions of fact or argument, clearness and ready comprehensibility are a great, often an indispensable, object. Science and poetry, having separate purposes, may have each its several law. One degree of light the artist may find will become one delineation, quite a different degree of light another. The face of Agamemnon was not painted, but hidden, in the old picture; the veiled figure at Sais was the most impressive in the temple. This style of composition has often a singular charm. The reader is kept on the alert, ever conscious of his own active coöperation. Light breaks on him, and clearer vision by degrees, till at last the whole lovely shape comes forth, definite, it may be, and