Ibid.

"Whither art thou gone, fair world," &c.

We are here again reminded of Wordsworth, who, in his poem of "The Wishing Gate," contrasts the bright regions of Hope with

"the land of Wishes-where

Dwell fruitless day-dreams, lawless prayer,

And thoughts with things at strife ;
Yet how forlorn, should ye depart,
Ye superstitions of the heart,
How poor, were human life!"

And in his later poem-" The Wishing Gate Destroyed,” we again find him exchanging this language of complaint for the more animating strain of confidence in Human Virtue and Human Destiny

Our state

"Not Fortune's slave is Man.
Enjoins, while firm resolves await
On wishes just and wise,
That strenuous Action follow both,
And Life be one perpetual growth
Of heavenward enterprize."

Ibid. p. 21.

Nature, of her Gods bereft, obeys,
Slave-like, mere mechanic power."

Compare with this passage what Carlyle says with regard to the spirit of Benthamism in his "Heroes and Hero-Worship."

We may here also notice the remark of Coleridge, that "Pantheism and Idolatry naturally end in each other; for all extremes meet."

Spinosa," he elsewhere observes," at the end of his life, seems to have gained a glimpse of the truth. In his last pub

lished letters it appears that he began to suspect his premises. His Unica Substantia is, in fact, a mere notion—a subject of the mind, and no object."

Die Künstler, p. 22.

It is with a deep conviction of the necessity of a more lengthened dissertation than the limits of my Volume admit, in order to a full comprehension of this very singular production, and, at the same time, of my own incompetency to the task of composing it, from the imperfect state of my acquaintance with the Philosophical and Æsthetical theories on which it is founded, that I have ventured on the present version. Whether the poem itself be, in the estimation of English readers, of sufficient value to justify the labour which I have thus indicated as necessary to its full conception, I shall now leave it to others to decide; only observing, in addition to my preliminary remarks on the subject, that I apprehend the poetical works of Akenside and Wordsworth will be found to prepare much of the way to that more complete illustration which is to be sought for in Schiller's own philosophical treatises, and in the Esthetic doctrines on which they are founded. To these means of elucidation may be added, various passages to be found scattered through the early poetical writings of Coleridge-his "Religious Musings," and other pieces of the same stamp and character—all bearing the impression of their origin in the school to which Schiller belonged. It is to be remembered, also, that the true source, mediate or immediate, of all these poetical conceptions is to be sought for in the writings of Plato.

Man, the child of a better power, has been committed to the fosterage of a Stranger. "The homely nurse," says Wordsworth:

"-E'en with something of a mother's mind,
And no unworthy aim, doth all she can

To make her foster-child, her inmate man,
Forget the glories he hath known,

And that imperial palace whence he came."

Thus also Schiller-" To such servants was man committed. Abandon not yourself, however, to those who are but servants to educate and train you. Fall not from your own proper province under the dominion of those who ought to be only your servants, or the servants of that kind hand which is thus appointed to lead you." And, to the same effect, in his treatise Ueber das Erhabene-" Nature herself demands that we should early hasten towards the Beautiful, while still flying from the Sublime; for Beauty is our nurse in the years of childhood, and is appointed to conduct us from the rude state of Nature to a state of Refinement."

Ibid. p. 25.

"Oh fall not off with will degenerate

To be of slaves the slave."

It is something like this species of moral degeneracy which Wordsworth has pathetically touched in his poem of “ Ruth.”

"His genius and his moral frame
Were thus impair'd, and he became
The slave of low desires;

A man who, without self-controul,
Would seek what the degraded soul
Unworthily admires."

Ibid. Stanza, I. 4. p. 26.

Not to indulge in too frequent and long quotations, I must be allowed to remind my readers, by something more than a mere reference, of the sublime passage in the "Ode to Duty," which bears too obvious and close a resemblance to this and

other parts of the Künstler, to be treated as a mere casual resemblance.

"There are, who ask not if thine eye

Be on them; who, in love and truth,
Where no misgiving is, rely

Upon the genial sense of youth:

Glad hearts-without reproach or blot—

Who do thy work, and know it not.

Long may the kindly impulse last!

And thou, if they should totter, teach them to stand fast.

Serene will be our days, and bright,

And happy will our nature be,

When Love is an unerring light,

And Joy its own security.

And they a blissful course may hold,

Even now, who, not unwisely bold,

Live in the spirit of this creed,

Yet find that other strength according to their need.”

Schiller appears, in this passage, to have had in view the lines of Akenside:

"God most high

The living fountains in himself contains

Of beauteous and sublime: with him enthroned,

Ere days or years trod their æthereal way,

In his supreme intelligence enthroned,

The queen of love holds her unclouded state,
Urania"-

But, as already remarked of Wordsworth and Schiller, so of Schiller and Akenside, the instances of apparent imitation in many places are too strong to be accounted mere accident.

Ibid. Stanza I. 7, p. 27.

Compare with this Stanza and the following, throughout, Wordsworth's Ode to Duty, already cited, and likewise Schiller's Treatise Ueber den Moralischen Nutzen Esthetischer Sitten-"On the Moral Use of Esthetics"-to which I can only refer thus generally.

Ibid. Stanza II. 1, p. 28.

The sentiment of this and the following stanzas is also illustrated by a passage in the treatise Ueber das Erhabene, descriptive of the contrast between man, while the mere slave of physical necessity, and when freed from that thraldom by the exercise of his reflective faculties.

Ibid. Stanza II. 9, p. 33.

See the sentiment of this Stanza enlarged and illustrated in One of Schiller's earliest prose-writings, the Essay on the Stage considered in the light of a moral institution-Die Schaubühne als eine moralische Anstalt betrachtet-1784.

"But when," proceeds the Poet in this and the following Stanzas," you endeavoured to bring this fair proportion, or symmetrical arrangement, out into the actual state of the world, you discovered that Fate, though it seemed to connect certain things visibly before your eyes, did not permit you to witness their eventual separation. Life vanished into the unknown deep, before it appeared to you to have completed its destined circle; and you therefore boldly carried forward the