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    Untitled Article

    Oemarfes on the Genius and jFfifiri gs of Hter&er . tf'f

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    religion waitings translated , I fga ? that ail partisans wro ^ d J > e discpn - tent $ d with tb > exny \ hvt I am sure he would be the favourite . of ... { he more liberal of eaqh party . The blotted orthodox would be , dis r

    pleased with the obvious wish to lessen the , importance affixed to the peculiar doctrines , and the exclusively rational Christian would be ready to exclaim , " This man belongs to us and yet favours our adversaries *? ' In all his religious

    works , Herder ' s object i $ to illustrate and expatiate on the beauties , and proclaim the beneficent tendency of , Christianity * But he avoids as much as piossible giving any opinion on points of dispute . His dialogues on Hebrew poety have been translated .

    The poetry of Herder is ^ marked by the same character which distinguishes his other productions ; he is purely lyric and the ^ exquisitely delicate * moral sense which pervades all his poems is

    the ^ grace which atones for great pechanical defects , and a want of plastic imagination . His translations are not such as critics approve , but theBpint of * fais original is always transfused ? In hj ^ Yolks baladen { popular ballads ) he

    Jhas nationalised many of Percy ' s collection : his poetical chef d ' eeuvrefc a posthumous . work , the Cidy in which a number of the pld Spanish ballads , founded on this national tale , are brought together and constitute a series of

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    'ly ^ ic feall ^ ds of . sin ^ i ^ ar . ch ^ JRacter » p . d be ^ fi ^ y \* * .. , . . i'fhe historical worlds of Herifer illustrate the turn of his mind very strikingly . He had nojt . the faculty of contemplating

    incjividual , and detached facts in all fcheir individuality ; and hence there was in his mind a very «»* - historical tendency ; w . fafat he delighted in were gi'eat connecting views of mankind . 'J ^ he" English Reader may have reinarked this in his " Ideas towards the Hisfpry of Mankiad , " in which magniiiceat sketches , and a vast reach *> f outline is presented to th ^ fancy , -hut in which only few favourite spots are . elaborately wrought . Yet io

    this charming work , the disquisitions on ^ the Grecian character , oa Christianity , &c must surely delight every mind that > can range over and dwell on great ma&sss with ease and pleasure- Herder possessed the philosophic eyewhidh , as well as the po ^ ts , * ' doth glance

    from heaven to earth , from earth to heaven . " Though he had not the poetic pen to " body forth the forms of things unknown /' A similar remark ; nia , y be made upon Herder a « a critic ; his mind was certainly not cast in a critical mould , the essence of which lies in close

    discrimination and minute analysis ; yet his judgments on literature and art are . mo . it interesting ^ for lie supplied , the want , of subtiliziwg discernmeat , by theposses ~

    * Hi * versification wa < s very incorrect and the fiurhts both <* f rcjetrc , ^ gtamtnar , and style were bften ' tfufriished with topics of declamation in ihbst of his poetic compositions . ' He had in all thipgs $ n Impatience of rules ; - he had noUense of that Excellence whicjilie ^ in poetic phraseology . On this point , JJerder cordially assented to fife thedry of Mr , WoriiswoHh , he receive ^ liot ' loti ^ before h ^ death , that gentleman ' s lyrical battadfc ; he expressed an enthusiastic aidmaratiojQ of 4 thcm , and ln « full approbation of the truly phiiosppWc Prcf « U ^ i • us

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1808, page 177, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2391/page/5/