the gravitation of Germany is that way; the manufacturing and commercial policy of the country demand it; public opinion, with a few interested exceptions, has pronounced itself strongly in its favor; and the political condition of the country is such, that, without union, it is idle to suppose, that Germany will ever have a national existence, or be able to maintain even the status quo. With powerful empires to the east and west of her, nothing but union can maintain the integrity of her provinces, or afford protection to her industry, her commerce, and her independence. The truth of these remarks has at no time been felt more strongly in Germany than at this moment, when it is reiterated in a hundred journals, until it has become familiar to the most ordinary capacity; and what a whole nation wills is seldom, for any length of time, refused by her rulers. There may be objections to the union now, but time will overcome them; especially when some publicists, of more imagination than experience, who would give that union a particular political complexion, shall have perceived the errors of their way, and the impracticability of those institutions which they press with so much enthusiasm and so little discretion on a people who are, by habit, education, and temper, entirely unfitted for them. These fanatics have been in the habit of despairing of their country, whenever the sober realities of life dissipated their beau idéal of government; and yet, in the long catalogue of improvements which have taken place in Germany since the last war, not one can be traced to their agency. The political and social development of Germany is necessarily a slow one, and it is fortunate for her that it is So. A nation, whose history extends back for two thousand years, cannot easily lend herself to a new experiment, or change at once her domestic policy. That a most important change has taken place, no one can doubt; and the United States will do well to watch it, so as to be ready for action whenever the extension of the Tariff-League shall have rendered a direct intercourse between Germany and America possible. The former country, in that case, will be more ready to treat with the United States than with any other nation; and the struggle for commercial and manufacturing independence of Great Britain, which has lately manifested itself at the Congress of the League, at Stuttgart, properly nursed by "The Journal of the League," will be no unimportant

auxiliary in the negotiations commenced for that purpose. A treaty with the United States would be popular throughout Germany; that with England was assailed by the whole German press, and was consequently abandoned.

ART. IV. — 1. Geschichte der Poetischen National-Literatur der Deutschen, von G. G. GERVINUS. Zweite umgearbeitete Ausgabe. Drei Bände. Leipzig: Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann. 1840-2. (A History of the (Early) Poetical Literature of the Germans. By G. G. GERVINUS. Second revised Edition. Three

Volumes. 8vo. pp. 1606.)

2. Neuere Geschichte der Poetischen National-Literatur der Deutschen, von G. G. GERVINUS. Zwei Bande. Leipzig Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann. 1840-2. (A History of the Modern Poetical Literature of the Germans. By G. G. GERVINUS. Two Volumes.

8vo. pp. 1379.)

IN these five large octavos is contained the history of the poetical literature of Germany, from the time of the ancient bards mentioned by Tacitus, down to the death of Goethe. The subject is a great one. It comprises whatever the Muse has sung, during a period of more than a thousand years, in that broad land which lies between the Rhine and the Vistula, the Danube and the Baltic, the songs of the bards of heathen antiquity, the Christian poesy of knight, monk, and burgher in the middle ages, and the immortal productions of the great masters of modern verse.

To the accomplishment of his task the author has brought no ordinary qualifications. He exhibits the extensive and profound erudition, the historical faculty of bringing past and remote states of society near, and projecting the present into the distance, and the philosophical insight into the distinguishing features of individuals, communities, and epochs, which so favorably characterize the recent historiography of the Germans. He has evidently studied not only the poetry of Germany, but that of the other contemporary European, not to add Asiatic, nations; and has made himself acquainted

with the progress of the kindred arts, and the other departments of letters. No parade, however, is made of his learning; the results of investigation are given, not the processes. Elaborate in its style without being pedantic, rich in significant facts and instructive principles, and free from the details of minute criticism, the work of Gervinus has a higher artistic merit than is usually found in the productions of his countrymen.

We should do our author little honor by instituting a comparison between his labors and those of his predecessors in this department of literary effort. Less brilliant, indeed, than the author of "German Literature," he is, however, less prejudiced and less egotistical; is sounder in principle, more profoundly learned, and more classical in taste. He has written a purely historical, and not, like those who preceded him, an æsthetical work; he has also avoided the common fault of overrating the early poetry of the Germans, in comparison with that of recent times. He has contemplated the progress of poetry from a new point of view, showing what part his countrymen have taken in restoring the pure forms and unconscious spirit of those early days, when Homer, Pindar, and Sophocles sang from the pure love of song, and before the prevalence of philosophy throughout Greece, by developing the reflective powers of the national mind, had infused the sentiments of the schools into the measures of poesy.

In attempting to give our readers some account of this elaborate work, we shall follow quite closely in the track of the author, expressing his opinions rather than our own, and adopting even his language and illustrations when it suits our purpose, though with such modifications that it may not be proper to mark the passage as an extract.

The earliest German ballads have been lost; but there is sufficient reason for believing, that the infancy of this, as of every other nation, including even the degraded tribes of Africa and the rude natives of Kamtschatka, was delighted and instructed by songs. Tacitus alludes to old ballads, in which the earth-born Tuisco, and Mannus, his son, were celebrated as the founders of the German race; and makes mention of the barritus, or discordant chant accompanied by the clashing together of many bucklers, which inflamed the souls of the warriors on the eve of battle. The bards re

corded in song all public transactions, related in succession the names of their kings, and sang the praises of heroes like Hercules and Arminius. The gift of song does not appear, however, to have been confined to any distinct class of persons, but to have been enjoyed by the people at large. If there were wandering minstrels, who gained a livelihood by the use of the lyre, they were probably not numerous, and their vocation was held in but little esteem. Unlike the Grecian, the German warriors all joined in the battle chant and pæan. No priestly order, like the Druids of Gaul, taught in hymns the fables of their mythology; but, as in modern times, the whole people were the guardians of poetry and song, always more universally popular in this than in any other nation of modern Europe.

The poetry of the German bards can bear no comparison with that of the early Greeks. No song of Sirens was ever heard by the rude voyagers of the Suevian Sea. No Orpheus of the North ever softened the ferocity of Teutonic boars and bears, or drew after him the rocks and trees of the Hercynian forest. Nor could the Germans, situated in a temperate clime, and amid natural scenery of a mild and simple character, have breathed into their early poetry the fiery passions of the Arabians, inhabiting the burning sands of the desert, or the sublime conceptions of the Scandinavians, surrounded by their tempestuous seas, widely-spread snow-plains, and rugged mountains. In this central region, early fable and mythology received more of a historical and humane character; while, during the endless nights of the North, the imagination peopled the darkness with gigantic and superhuman shapes, and beneath the resplendent skies of the South, the fancy revelled in fictions the most fantastic and gorgeous. The life of the German being one of rapine and war, his songs were imbued with the spirit of revenge and daring, with the love of the ruder virtues, and the veneration of supernatural divinities, with praises of the steed, the bow, the shield, and the spear. War, in fact, was the burden of song in the heroic age, as love afterwards was in that of chivalry.

The regular growth of the early song and tradition of the Germans was checked by their numerous migrations, and their prolonged wars with the Roman Empire. Movements so stupendous must have absorbed all the interests

and energies of the barbarian tribes who took part in them. The foundations of society were broken up, whole nations changed their dwelling-places, ancient tribes were dissolved and new ones created, and the languages, laws, and usages of the people were either greatly modified or entirely destroyed. Amid this wild confusion of marching nations, the sweet voices of the ancient bards could no longer be heard. Tribes passed away whose exploits were never chronicled; heroes lived and died, unsung; and the names of few chieftains, except those of Attila and Theodoric, were rescued from unmerited oblivion by the lyre.

With the introduction of Christianity, the heathen bards, who had celebrated the exploits of Hermann and Velida, of Attila and Theodoric, gave place to the ecclesiastical poets, who reduced to verse the legends of the saints and the narratives of the New Testament. They used not the vernacular language of Germany, but the Latin tongue of the more enlightened South; and, instead of the alliteration of the bardic songs, introduced the rhyme of modern poetry. The love of letters was confined to the clerical order, even down to the expiration of the Frankish dynasty; but as the cloister was more serviceable in preserving the treasures of classic learning, and in promoting those abstract studies which require seclusion from the disturbing influences of society, than in the cultivation of the art of poetry, which is best learned in the midst of men and the stirring events of real life, we find at the present day not so much poetical, as linguistic merit in these effusions of the sacerdotal muse. It should be added, however, that the Æsopic fables of those times, particularly the "Reinhart Fuchs," are not destitute of poetical merit.

The next great event which materially influenced the literature of Germany was the beginning of the Crusades. This great struggle between Mohammedanism and Christianity, together with the extinction of the Celtic nations, and the discovery both of the New World and the passage by the Cape of Good Hope to the East Indies, brought to a close the dominion of barbarian heroism and classic culture over Europe, and ushered in the reign of Christian sentiment and modern ideas. The knowledge of foreign life and literature, introduced among the Germans by intercourse with the inhabitants of distant countries, elevated the character of the