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INTELLIGENCE.
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FOREflGJNT . Memoir of M . JFerner . Werner was suceesively a famous Protestant poet and a famous Catholic preacher ' . He was one of those men who pass from one extreme to another almost without the appearance of inconsistency ,
because the motive which impels them is always of the same nature . He was horn Nov . 18 , 1768 , at Kcenigsberg in Prussia ; his father was professor of history and eloquence in that place , and
licencer of the drama , which at an early age made the son acquainted with dramatic poetry . His mother , the niece of a poet , h ^ d so large a sh a re of the family ardour of imagination , that at the end of her life she became insane and believed
that she was the Virgin Mary and had given birth to the Saviour . Zechariah Werner Appears to have Inherited some portion of his mother ' s mental alienation . His studies were regularly conducted : he pursued philosophy under Kant , and
he attended lectures on jurisprudence . He commenced poet in 1789 , and his verses contained very liberal sentiments , lu 1793 , he obtained an office under the Prussian administration , and was sent to various capitals , especially to Warsaw , where he resided till 1805 . There M .
Hitzig , his biographer , had frequent intercourse and cultivated an intimate acquaintance with him . He witnessed the progress of his best poem—7 ^ £ S of the Valley . At some distance from Warsaw ,, in a thick wood , watered by the Vistula , is an abbey of Camaldolites ; in summer the two friends tised to quit the
capital on a Saturday evening , as soon as the offices were shut up , and repair to the forest , near that romantic monastery ; they took up their abode in an inn or under the forest trees ; the Sunday was employed in viewing the beautiful landscapes of the-neighbourhood , and in those lonely walks Werner read to his friend the
verses he had composed during the week . At this time the young Protestant poet had already conceived a fantastical idea : he considered that in order to restore a poetic spirit to religion . Protestantism ,
which was top prosaic , should be exchanged for Catholicism , but Catholicism refiiie ' iiby . the ' aid' of free-masonry . He had a singular way of expressing his stfcfclime irieas : The Devil will take the genius o £ the axt £ in Ewrope , " said he ,
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" if we return not to the refined Catholicism which was formerly professed . " We perceive that Werner was , at tlifg period , half a Catholic . It will , perliafte , occasion surprise to hear that this man , professing so much regard to religion , had repudiated two wives > and just
married a third , who bad no better fate . Domestic con tests could ao > t , however , be the cause of their disunion ; for Werner co aid speak only German , and Iris wife knew no language but the Polish . When he had been separated from his third wife , he wrote with great naivete , "I could not , in conscience , exact 6 f
my wife that she should live happily with me ; I am not wicked , it is true , but I atn trifling , capricious , economical to excess , destitute of order , absent , heedless , fond of being always in society or in places of public amusement : is it liay fault if I ani such a man ? ' * After having divorced three lawful wives , Werner devoted his attention more than ever to
religion and poetry . His famous drama , Du fVeihe der Kraft , ( recently translated into French by Bl » Michael Berr , under the title of Luther >) at first appeared a monument raised to the most celebrated of the reformers ; nevertheless , the clearsighted Protestants perceived in it a ;
marked predilection for the illusions , the pomp and the creed of the Catholic reli * gion ; the Protestant poet appeared to them to have more imagination than sound judgment . Werner wrote in one of his letters , * ' I feel infinite regret at seeing such men as Schlegel , Tieck anc $ Schleiermacher wasting their energies :
one writes a comedy , another publishes a journal , a third , sentimental poetry , sonnets and heaven knows what ; itgites me pain to hear them boast of their great undertakings , as the French are always talking of a descent on England , whilst at the same time they have wo gr&nd object , and never conceive tbe divine idea of an union of friends for * the most
noble enterprise We want apostles who devote themselves to one object , as well as proselytes , &cJ' These bdeas from the pen of a worldly ^ mindedi mm * > who had been three times divorced , Were singular enough ; nor did they lead to
any result , unless it wer& that Wemei * composed the Cross of the Baltic Sea , and received a pension from the Prince Primate . Having lost his office o » the invasion of Prussia by tlie Fr&icH * h £ went to Paris where he was of no use ;
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i . 117 )
Intelligence.
INTELLIGENCE .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1824, page 117, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2521/page/53/
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