The utmost brevity has been aimed at in these remarks upon a wide subject; and if any should think they fill too many of our pages, our only plea arises from the importance of the subject to all readers, and from its being a subject also to which we shall not probably have occasion soon to recur.

ART. II. Inaugural Discourse, delivered before the University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, September 3, 1831. By CHARLES FOLLEN, Professor of the German Language and Literature. Cambridge. Hilliard & Brown. 1831. 8vo. pp. 28.

THE German language and literature have of late years. attracted much attention throughout Europe, and in this country, and are likely to attract a great deal more. A few words

may therefore be allowed us, respecting their most obvious claims to notice. The German language is distinguished by the copiousness of its vocabulary, and its power of indefinite increase from its own stock. This arises from its being an original language, not made up like the English, of a motley mixture of Greek, Latin, and French, with Teutonic roots, but Teutonic throughout. A German compounds new terms almost ad libitum; and these compounds, being drawn from the stock of words already familiar to the people, are immediately understood by all, and therefore, if expressive, are easily admitted into use. Hence the German language has words for the most various shades of ideas, for many of which the English affords no corresponding terms. If we wish to form a new term in science or philosophy, we run to Greek. But, as words of such an origin are necessarily unintelligible to the great body of the people, they make their way into use very slowly, and few of them comparatively obtain currency. Hence the comparative poverty of the English tongue in terms expressive of the classifications of science, or of shades of thought and feeling, and hence one of the difficulties of clothing in an English dress the German systems of intellectual philosophy. The German Language is distinguished too for its great flexibility, and power of inversion and involution. This is owing in a considerable degree to the freedom allowed in placing the prepositions, which enables a German to give coherency and clearness to his endless sentences, with all their parentheses, illustrations, and qualifications, which, literally rendered in the

stiff English tongue, would present a scene of inextricable confusion. This power in the language, of continuing a train of thought unbroken by the numberless periods of an English page, produces great fluency of style, and enables the reader to keep his attention fixed on the leading ideas with comparative ease, while in English, in which a writer is so often compelled to break up his thoughts, and give to each qualification, illustration, or subsidiary idea, a separate sentence, a reader's attention is liable to be drawn from the leading train of thought, and lost in the merely accessary and auxiliary, or the writer, for the sake of being intelligible, retrenches more than he is disposed to do. The richness and flexibility of the German language are manifested in the remarkable transfusion of the spirit of foreign works of imagination into German versions. The German public appreciate as fully and admire as enthusiastically the beauties of Shakspeare in a German translation, as an Englishman or American does in the original. Such is the language. We shall now touch upon a few of the strong points of the literature.

The writers of Germany are distinguished for a liberal cosmopolitan character, for the power of appreciating all forms of excellence as well foreign as native, and a superiority to the pride and jealousy produced by a petty patriotism. They are distinguished for an independent love of truth, and a contempt of authority unsupported by reason; for great thoroughness of research, and massy erudition. The causes of this character we must look for in the circumstances of their country. The governments of Germany are monarchical; their power is arbitrary even where it is not in form despotic; and the avenues to posts of honor and trust are barred against the great body of the people. The country is split into numerous states, each with its court, capital, and university. The states are many of them poor and politically insignificant, and must remain obscure unless they can find some cheap means of distinguishing themselves. The German princes have therefore resorted to the patronage of literature as an easy means of doing honor to themselves, and of employing the active. spirits among their subjects. They found and endow universities, and labor to fill their chairs with the ablest men. The constitution of these universities is such as to favor an active competition among the instructors. No man is allowed to slumber. His fame will be eclipsed and his emoluments

diminished by active rivals, if he is not up and doing. This state of things tends to make many and thorough scholars, including within their ranks a large number of the ablest men in the country, who in more free states would have been struggling in the political arena. These men devote themselves to literature with the same determined zeal, the same independent spirit, and the same contempt for narrow prejudices, which, in a republic, would have made them the leaders and the ru lers of the people. They give the tone to the literature of the country, and make it liberal, independent, and thorough. Other causes contribute to increase the number of scholars, and to elevate the literary character of Germany. In a population exceeding thirty-four millions, and divided into numerous states, the number of educated men required to fill the public offices must necessarily be large, and where there is a large number of educated men, many will devote themselves to literature. But the scholars of Germany are not only numerous, they are also divided. The numerous capitals and universities necessarily give rise to different circles, each disposed to criticize the rest; and the number of critical journals connected with these different circles exercise their office in a very independent spirit. Sciolism, pretension, and prejudice find thousands of detectors and hundreds of castigators. The body of German writers has been estimated at ten thousand, producing from three thousand five hundred, to five thousand volumes yearly. A man who has any regard to reputation, will be cautious of appearing before such a body of critics without careful preparation. Their great number tends moreover to awaken an esprit de corps among the German scholars, to give them a tone and views of their own, and to raise them above the prejudices of the society around them; and the spirit of competition among them is increased by the diversity of their pursuits. Excellence in one department produces kindred excellence in others. Mutual attrition puts all in a flame. From these and other causes thorough investigation, independent thinking, and liberal views, have become characteristic of German literature. No man takes an ipse dixit as the rule of his faith, but deduces his own conclusions from first principles with what sometimes appears indeed a tedious prolixity of elementary detail, in the eyes of an Englishman, or an American, accustomed from the business habits of his country to jump at once to practical conclusions, but

which on the whole gives great character, freshness, and scientific spirit to German writings.

As our principal stores of thought and knowledge, in this country, are necessarily drawn from English books, it may not be out of place to touch upon some of the deficiencies in English literature which the German is most adequate to supply. One is a want of liberality. We have already spoken of the cosmopolitan spirit of the German writers, and the willingness with which they pay tribute to excellence wherever it is to be found. To the causes already assigned for this spirit we might add the situation of the Germans in the centre of Europe, surrounded by and conversant with nations of different character and origin; also the extent of their country, with its numerous population, in whom the feeling of a common origin, language, and literature represses, in a great measure, the sectional spirit usually arising from political divisions. We might add that the interests cf Germany, lie mostly within her own territory. She has no widely extended foreign commerce and colonies to bring her into collision with half the earth. Now the case is very different with England. Her situation is insular, her people are out of the high road of Europe, and suffer the usual consequences of seclusion, self conceit, and a contempt for others; and having been long accustomed to consider themselves as the only freemen in Europe, and, from their wealth and naval superiority, to exert a powerful influence on its politics, they have become habituated to a supercilious tone towards the people of the continent. Moreover the commercial and colonial relations of England are immense. That gigantic polypus extends an arm to every corner of the earth, and is liable to have its sensitiveness excited in a thousand directions and in a thousand ways. The effect of all this is a proneness to ill will, jealousy, and a spirit of depreciation towards foreigners; and the effects of this tendeney are very visible in English literature. Now, as we are nurtured in the literature of England from our cradles, it seems to be a matter of some consequence to avoid imbibing the insular prejudices and commercial jealousies of our transatlantic brethren; and the liberal spirit which characterizes the literature of Germany will make it a very efficient antidote. We may be allowed to say too, that we do not consider English literature as characterized by the same independence, the same love of truth in the abstract, and the same determination to carry

principles to all their legitimate conclusions, which distinguish the literature of Germany. Notions once rooted in the literature of England maintain their ground very sturdily. An aversion to change, a determination to adhere to old ways as long as they are tolerable, seems to make a part of the English character. The constitution of government and the laws of England are founded, in a great measure, on prescription. No change can be made without a violent struggle. The cumbrous machinery and immense expenditure of the government, with the overgrown wealth of its established church, tend moreover to create a very numerous class of persons attached to the existing state of things in politics and religion. The thousand holders and ten thousand expectants of office are firm friends to things as they are. The army of churchmen in esse or in posse are staunch upholders of the Thirty-nine Articles. Hence the cry of radicalism or infidelity which is thundered against innovators in politics and religion, including all religious, philosophical, and historical writers whose opinions militate against the views of the powers that be. Moreover the spirit of that great work-shop and counting-house of the globe is eminently practical. Great principles are generally considered by the writers of England not mainly with reference to their abstract truth, but to their practical application. They are made subjects of party discussion, and are attacked or defended according as they favor or thwart the views of the respective parties. Those who read English literature exclusively, become therefore accustomed to partial views, and will find their horizon much extended by stepping into the literary field of Germany.

In regard to learning we presume there is no question of the superiority of the German literati, collectively speaking, both in the variety of their studies and the thoroughness of their research. In Germany, literature is a profession, requiring for its successful pursuit the same unflinching spirit as the other professions. It is a country of universities without rich endowments to encourage indolence, but furnishing numerous rewards for meritorious effort. In England there is comparatively little demand for professed scholarship. Her universities have been few, their endowments rich, and the field of active life so wide that the number of men who devote themselves strenuously to learned labor is small. Hence German literature is far richer than English in many departments of