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    84£ l»\ fe and Writings of Herder.

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    : Account Of Herder's Life And Writings.

    of & sfcate o £ soeie ^ whici * jcould render such sacrifices necessary * ami permit the enjoyiaeat of gu ^ of the fcrst rights of civilized man to depend on the mere accident of belonging to a privileged class *

    The principal works which Herder produced or completed in fthe latter years pfjiis life were the concluding parts © f his * Ideas on the Philosophy * <& . Co 9 " a work which is remarkable , it is said , for having first suggested to

    Gall the inquiries which have been since so laboriously pursued by hiiuself and Spurzheinv ; his Letters on the Advancement of Human Nature ;" his " Letters on Persepolis , " which he left incomplete , but for continuing which he had collected many materials in a visit to the Library at Dresden in the very year in which he died ; his * Adrastea ; " and his " Scattered Leaves ; " but his smaller and occasional pieces are innumerable One of his chief recreations in an evening , amidst the sickness and the sorrow of his closing days , consisted in translating the poems of the Cid . Repeated attacks of disease , and the constant irritation occasioned by employments wholly foreign to his taste and abilities , at length undermined his constitution , and brought him to his grave on the 18 th of December ,

    1803 , in the commencement of his sixtieth yearo His affectionate widow , whose accomplishments would have procured her celebrity as a writer ., had she been less devoted to the fulfilment of her duties as a mother and a wife , has recorded her regret and her reverence in her ' * Recollections from his Life ; " and the publication of a new edition of his choicest works was undertaken by his friends Heyne and the two Mullers . The number and variety of his works evince the extent of his acquirements and the resources of his genius ; and how commanding must have been the influence of that genius is proved by the high estimation in which he was held by men

    so widely different from each other in their character and attainmentsprofoundly learned as Heyne and Eichhorn on one hand 3 or rich in all the gifts of a high poetic imagination , like Wieland , Goethe ., and Schiller , on the other . But his intellectual excellences are less worthy of admiration than his moral—his strict integrity—his ardent love of truth—his deep and tender piety—the purity and amiableness of his domestic life— -and his devoted attachment to the cause of liberty and human happiness . His character , intellectual and moral , had , it is true , its darker shades * He had a tendency to mysticism , * which , in a country less enthusiastic and less tolerant of any variety of opinion than Germany , would have exposed him to ridicule ; his learning , accumulated under Uhe influence of feeling , and

    constantly turned to certain great practical bearings , did not always exhibit the profound research and the accuracy of detail which are the characteristic merits of his compatriots ; and the balance of his powers was disturbed by the preponderance of his imagination . He was liable to the irritability and impatience which are almost inseparable from genius ; he spoke and acted too -unuch from present impressions ; and in controversy sometimes betrayed a harshness and virulence hardly reconcilable with the general sweetness

    * He believed in the existence of certain hidden powers of nature , which he could not as yet explain , but which harmonized with the operation of known and ascertained , laws . He thought that , in momenta of deep and silent self-retirement , a pure and well-regulated mind might , by the force of some inward movement , become capable of anticipating future events . Hence , under any circumstances o ( Htrong excitement , he- would throw open the pages of the Bible or of aome other favourite book , and appl y to his heart as a voice from the invisible worLd , the passages , whether of warning or of consolation , on which his eye chanced to falL

    84£ L»\ Fe And Writings Of Herder.

    84 £ l »\ fe and Writings of Herder .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1830, page 842, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_02121830/page/42/