ing. See the Old Testament, In the Gospel, we have the eternal foundation of future and higher Evangels. O VO Shame is a feeling of profanation. Friendship, love, and religion are subjects which should be treated mysteriously. Only in rare con fidential moments should we venture to speak of them.Many things are too sacred even to think of, much less to be mentioned in language. What is mysticism? what must be mystically treated? All those subjects which a man elects of his own freewill; such as religion, love, nature. If all men were perfectly agreed, like a couple of lovers, the distinction between mystic and non-mystic will disappear, There is much apparent confusion in the following passage lod a of und Fancy paints the future world for us sometimes in glowing and sometimes in gloomy colours, according to the metempsychoses which take place in our own souls. We dream of travelling with the power of the will wherever we choose through space. Does not then the universe exist within us? In ourselves, or nowhere, exists eternity with its two worlds the past and the present. The exterior world is a world of shadows; it casts its shadow on the brilliancy of the kingdom of light. How different it will be hereafter, when all darkness will be swept away, and when the shadow world of our bodies has also disappeared! We shall enjoy more than we possibly can now; for our spirit is imprisoned on earth.hi bira novooaib seodw on But Novalis was no Gnostic or ascetic of the Simon' Stylites race; for he paid vast honour to the human body.id wall. “ The antithesis," he said, 'between body and soul is one of the most dangerous of subjects. It has played an extraordinary role in theological history. There is but one single high form. Bending before men, we do homage to this revelation in the flesh Yet soul and body,' he admitted, were two distinct kingdoms; and it was the worst of weakness when the one was too much influenced by the other.' Music was a delight to him. The life of a cultivated man,' he said, should alternate between work and music, as between sleep and waking. Yet the endless misererés' of our Church music, he complained, were only penitentiary psalms animated by the spirit of the Old Testament, under which dispensation most Christians were anxious to remain. The New Testament was still for the majority of men, he bitterly lamented, a book with seven seals. A few of his strictures upon contemporary writers are very characteristic. Schiller, he declared, wrote for the few, but Goethe for the many. Schiller started from a certain fixed point in all the discoveries he would make respecting mankind. His sight was too limited. He could imagine no other circumstances than those with which he was already Remarks on Shakspeare, Goethe, and Schiller. an 361 acquainted. Schiller drew like Albrecht Dürer, too hardly for his designs to be true to mature Goethe he called the tru Viceroy of the poetic spirit on earth. He is, he said, his works what the Englishman is in his wares very simple neat, useful, and lasting. He is, like the Englishman, a natural economist, and unites a practical taste to a sober understanding, What charmed him in Goethe was, however, especially, his stylénoiņilor as done ; lliwest awo zid to edoofs man a "doidw złoojduz arld However wonderful it! þáÿ ́çém potom Wet it ind less "true" that it is the treatment of a subject, the exterior construction of the sentences, and the melody of style, which often allures the reader and chains him to a book. Goethe's Wilhelm Meister is a strong proof of this magic of expression this irresistible witchcraft or a polished, musical, simple, and yet varied language wola voolg ni sautemos novog odd dviv enillevent to meosi of elnoz awq o, ni 996lq gɔlet He admitted that he understood Shakspeare but imperfectly; and yet he perceived at once, that the power of his genius lay in his generalization, in his faculty of combining all knowledgej so that the common things of life became as potter's clay to him There was hy mighty difference, he remarked, between the arti offlad well-developed nature and the artfulness of a tutored understanding?! Shakspeare was no calculator, no scholar, but one whose discoveries and ideas bear the mpress of a daring and independent spirit.rosas no siteoni) on asw zilsvoй toH 'Between his poems and the endless organizations of creation; the close observer may even now, discover fresh analogies. Here was the anticipation of ideas that were not fully realized till centuries afterwards, Of Lessing he complained on the other hand, that his sight was too keen, and he lost therefore the feeling of inexpressible immensity.........'' He had not the power of viewing things in toto," with their endless varieties of light and shade. He admitted the skill of Voltaire, whose Candide, he said, was his Odyssey. But he cried shame on him for reducing the whole world to a Parisian boudoir and remarkedy that his personal and natural vanity prevented him from attaining to greatnessAt Freyberg Novalis was not only occupied with these aphorisms, which were never intended to have been presented to the public in their present unpolished state, but he was also busied with writing his Ofterdingen, and a strange metaphorical romance, entitled the Disciples of Sais.Tieck and Carlyle have both furnished not stores bondbeh of sallida? shrinatsanato vuon ang metiun As might be expected, Emerson has a sort of parallel passage corresponding to this. The difference," he says, between men, is not so much in wisdom as in art. All men, cannot make the same use of their experience, cannot fack together the old and the new. Perhaps minds like Shakspeare's only possessed the strange skill of using and classifying facts! 107 10 explanations for these mysterious and unfinished stories, which still remain in a certain sense unfinished. Our limits, however, preclude us from entering here into any investigation of their. merits. In the summer of 1800, Tieck informs us, that he found Novalis full of thoughts of his future happiness. His house was already fitted up for his marriage, and his life: 'seemed to be expanding in the richest activity and love.' L'homme propose, mais Dieu dispose. Just as he was preparing to pay a visit to his intended bride, Novalis was seized with hemorrhage from the lungs. Alarmed at the appearance of the blood, he went to seek advice for the cure of his disease, and to visit his parent at He appeared to be regaining strength, when, on hearing the melancholy news of the sudden death of a younger brother, and being unable to repress the violence of his grief, he ruptured another blood-vessel, and his case was declared to be hopeless. His parents, his brothers, and Julie, now hastened to his assistance. They were shocked at the change in his appearance. It was evident to all, that the fatal consumption was making rapid inroads and speedily under! mining a constitution which had always been weak. Sanguine, however, as usual, and misled by the deceitful changes in the disease, Novalis was far from entertaining the same opinion. He declared he had no pain and said he only felt slightly weary, and was confident that a sojourn in a warmer climate would speedily restore his strength. Such a journey was declared by his physicians to be impossible, since to move him would certainly accelerate death. Still Novalis would not despair. He constantly repeated those words which are often so distressing to the mourners who hear them from dying lips. If I could but get a little strength, he whispered, with gasping breath, in the intervals between the paroxysms of the cough, if I could only get a little strength, I should soon be quite well,'frong hun be Meanwhile, the faculties of his mind remained as active as ever) His wit had never been more brilliant, and his memory remained unimpaired. The best of books was his constant companion; and when he laid aside the Bible, he read often in the works of Zinzendorf and Lavater. 'Never, till now,' he exclaimed, 'did I know the true meaning of poetry. Innumerable songs and melodies are now rejoicing my heart. On the 19th of March, (the anniversary of Sophie's death,) he became visibly worse. On the 21st, he was delighted by a visit from Friedrich Schlegel, with whom he talked for many hours. On the 25th, he awoke at six in the morning, and was happy and peaceful as usual. Having read for some time and breakfasted, he entreated his brother to play : Last Words with Friedrich Schlegel. 368 to him on the harpsichord. Under the soothing effect of the musical sounds, he soon fell into a quiet slumber, never to wake again upon earth. About noon, Friedrich Schlegel crept into the room, and found him to all appearance still peacefully sleeping. So with a smile upon his face, and without the least motion of suffering, Novalis passed away. Why shouldst thou fear the beautiful angel Death, Ready with gentle hands to close thine eyes? Thy treasures wait thee in the far off skies, And Death, thy friend, will give them all to thec.' As to the personal appearance of Novalis, it might be said to have corresponded with his writings. The forehead was wide, but not remarkably high, the hazel eyes were large and dreamy, the complexion was almost transparent, and the mouth clear cut and refined; but a few of the lines of the face were weak and even effeminate. His figure was tall and slender; his hair lightbrown, and curling on the shoulders. Altogether, it is easy to understand the remark of Tieck; that his face resembled that of the Evangelist St. John, as drawn by Albert Dürere During his short lifetime, he did not aim at obtaining a reputation. On his death-bed the expressed the greatest dissatisfaction with his own unfinished works. His fame, in fact, was principally posthumous, and partly the result of the labours of his unselfish friends ois God wdy ampunan ada el ge gAs a discriminating author has well remarked,The suggestive and sparkling aphorisms of Novalis should be read with due allowance. Some contain admirable thoughts pointedly expressed. Others, again, are curiously perverse and puerile.....!! The condition of knowledge is Eudæmonia-saintly calm of contemplation.com Such is the aspiration dimly discernible through the florid obscurity of Hymns to the Night. Shutting out the garish outer world of the actual, forgetting all its tinsel sil vand bike bombent and the 7PO (A story is told by Bülow, which shows how little the genius of Novalis was understood during his lifetime. His father bad only heard of his son's poems to oppose them and never took the trouble to read what he had written. But after the death of Friedrich, on going one day to attend Divine service with the Herrnhut community he was deeply affected by the rare beauty of a spiritual song which was sung by the worshippers. On the close of the service; he asked a friend, with great emotion, the name of the splendid, hymn which, he had heard, and who was the author of it? What was the astonished answer, do you not know that it was written by your own'sbras TOUTO50 IN DUJIUNG glories and its petty pains, the enthusiast seems to rise into that mystic meditative night, whose darkness reveals more truth than the searching brightness of daylight.' ART. III.-1. Plato's Doctrine respecting the Rotation of the Earth; and Aristotle's Comment upon the Doctrine: By GEORGE GROTE, ESQ. London: Murray. 1860. : LLIAM 2. The Platonic Dialogues for English Readers. By WIL: WHEWELL, D.D. London. 1860. His It is pleasant to be recalled by Mr. Grote to the consideration of the long-defunct cosmical systems of the ancients. instructive pamphlet shows us, perhaps, more strikingly than a more elaborate work, the point of departure in modern philosophy from the ancient line of march, and reminds us of the vast accessions made to physical science since its emancipation from an à priori way of treatment that was questionable even in metaphysics. We learn from him that several very ancient continental writers are employing their pens upon the cosmical mechanics of the ancients. It may not, perhaps, be unwelcome to some of our own countrymen to renew their recollection of some of those old-world hypotheses, which, though long since overthrown, have satisfied the inquisitive credulity of mankind, have given colour to some of the noblest flights of human imagination, and are to be regarded as a part, though not an integral part of the mighty edifice of ancient philosophy. Plato and Aristotle thought that the sun moved round the eartli. Dante constructed the whole scenery and mechanism of his sublime poem upon the geocentric theory. What has given colour to the speculation of such lofty genius retains an interest independent of its physical truth." odi vous od 9*** The cosmical theory of the ancients, as exhibited in Plato, is very grand. The earth is rotund, not flat, as the earlier poets thought; and is placed in the centre of the Cosmos: the heavenly bodies revolve about in various concentric spheres, The outermost sphere is that of the fixed stars; and this sidereal sphere (or aplanes) whirls round all the interior spheres, which have their own motions in addition to this revolution. sidereal sphere was what became known to later philosophers as primum mobile, which was supposed to give the diurnal' motion to the heavens. It forms the eighth heaven in the Paradise of Dante, and has its place in the more imperfect system of the universe, shadowed out by Milton in the fourth book of the |