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literary talents and tastes more directly opposed to each othtr , than those of Wieland and Goethe ; and these did , in fact , occasion a sparring between them before they became personally
acquainted , of which we have already spoken . Wieland was rather an accomplished writer , than an original genius ; a thinker , than a poet . He was a successful imitator , and an excellent
translator , at least of Horace and Lucian . His translation of Shakspeare was at least useful , but Goethe has truly remarked , that his mind was so directly opposed to that of Shakspeare in all points , that his own study of Shakspeare had no influence on
himself , as is proved by the passages he omitted , and by his notes written in the spirit of a Frenchman . Nothing raises Goethe higher in our estimation , than the facility with which he penetrated ,
as it were , into the spirit , and the liberality with which he appreciated the worth of minds so different from his own , as those of Schiller , Wieland , Voss , &c . If there be an exception to this praise , it is with reference to Herder only . The masonic oration which has produced these remarks , is an unique specimen of literary eulogy . We recommend it earnestly for translation .
We have now gone successively through Goethe ' s lyric , dramatic , romantic , and autobiographic works , constituting ( with the exception of his epic poems , which , as the crown of all , he has compressed within his last and 40 th volume ) his most important original writings . The remaining nine volumes show him in the character of critic , translator , and biographer .
Vol . 33 enables the curious reader to compare Goethe ' s earliest and latest critical writings . It contains thirty-five reviews , or rather literary notices , which appeared in the 6 Frankfort Literary Gazette / in 1772 and 1773 ; and sixteen more elaborate reviews , which were published in 1804-6 . The early reviews are chiefly of books forgotten now . The subjects are worth
notice as showing what at that period occupied the attention of the young and inquisitive . One especiall y is very remarkable , and it was by us entirely unexpected ; it is on that momentous topic , the freedom of the will , and suggests a curious subject for comparison between Goethe ' s own speculations and those which were excited in this country by the writings of Dr . Priestley only a few years afterwards . *
These reviews are of interest to those only to whom the literary history of Germany , or that of Goethe ' s own mind , is an object of minute attention . One single remark we extract , as both characteristic , and suggesting a useful hint to all rational interpreters of the Old Testament . Dr . Bahrdt had edited a book called 4 Eden , ' in which the popular notion of the Devil was disputed , and the history of the full of man explained allegorically . On this Goethe remarks : ' Had our author approached with due * W « have translated the article , which we withhold for the present . It would break into our series , which we are anxious to thnir to a close . No . 75 . P
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Goethe ' * Works . 193
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1833, page 193, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2610/page/49/
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