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A^GERMAlSr PASTOR* has becom
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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had been delicately reared , amid conventional decencies * and Ins mind had been trained , not left to work its issues out by its own impulses . His father had encouraged his verge malringy and published the produce in : a volume . of " Juvenilia , " of which the author lived to bo ashamed ., We remeinbev once to have had copies of this volume , and are inclined to believe that Iieigh Hunt was too sensitive on this score . The prevailing character of it was elegance , after the Pope and Shenstone model . AH this indicated a course of culture calculated to form the taste . What Leigh Hunt had of genius was simply reflective ., He grew up to a -perception ' , of better models , and learned to imitate them inore judiciously . He went back tp > the Elizabethan poets , and carried his public ( for lie had . one ) with him . . .
As a teacher of the people , Leigh Hunt had peculiar qualifications . His want of classicality , Vhieh made him despise the Kemble school of acting , was one . His taste was in the direction of romantic literature ; and , therefore , a priori , of a popular nature . His association with the superior literary men of his day gave him ultimately a forced elevation and importance , and suggested to him possibilities beyond , the natural reach of his own powers . His mind was , as it were , recreated by his intimacy with Keats , Shelley , Byron , and his occasional interviews with Wordsworth and Goler ridge ; The two latter evidently awakened , in him admiration and ¦ n ondor— -with the former he was on more familiar terms—nevertheless , they transcended him . The latter-statement , however , must be accepted with .: some limitation , In the drama he was at least their equal . His " Legend of Florence" is more dramatic in its substance than anything produced by either of them , except " The Genci . "
We have another biography ori our table—but it is not an autobiography . It is a hasty * not to say careless compilation , or memoir of Lord Macanlay ; iii which the deceased peer is considered as a historian , statesman , and essayist . It may , perhaps , be found an amusing cpmpendiuna , as . it includes some anecdotes of his life and literary labours . Lord Maeaulay , like -Leigh-Hunt , Is also a representative man ; but he represents the successful literary man of the present day , not tLafc of the earlier portion of the century . He begaii life with advantages ,-. to which the elder ¦ ¦ . essayistliad , no claim . Trained in the severe Calvinistie school , his religious notions liad none of the laxity which beset the latter . He was a sturdy presbyfather exact
terian of the stern Calvin cut , and derived from Ins an knowledge of the letter of Scripture . He belonged to a family that had always been fortunate in life ; and was himself oine of the most fortunate of men . The little work to which we have adverted presents the reader with a rapid outline of his career , and really contains , some original matter that is profitable .- for instruction . In conclusion , we feel that we have done rightly in noticing these two works together— 'for they are associated on the principle of Contrast , and present very opposite phases , both of character and fortune , yet both alike illustrative of literary life in the nineteenth century , so different in its manifestations when contemplated at its beginning or near its end . ..
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T-H nas Become a separate mm - tant vocation in the paths of literature and science . Indeed , to be a good translator , more than ordinary ability is requisite , Air . in rendering the text of a foreign writer into his own language it should be ¦ • tiro chief aim of the : translator , as far as he has the power , to transfer the wit , beauty , and spirit of his author into liis pages . As this is certainly the principal object which a translator should have in view while transferring 1 the feelings and opinions of a foreign writer into our mother tongue , this object can only Ibe satisfactorily accomplished by translating- the tofiole sense of the original in that style which we may be sure the autbor himself would Jhave used or have desired to use , had he written in English . Now , whatever may be the merits of German writers generally , and they are no , doubt
great , the idea of complexity and heaviness with which translations of Bom / e of the best German authors inspire the mere English reader , creates a distaste for the otherwise rich and recondite German literature . ' Even the matter and the manner of a German writer , tjiat , he may appear to advantage in England , must undergo a change—not an essential , but simply a conventional and idiomatic change— 'before ho can bo relished here . Such a translation ns we mean would not at all interfere with the V individuality " of the original , nor destroy any local 6 v national characteristics and differences between us . On the contrary ,, the translation of works on the principle wo intend would , while maintaining the essential characteristics of different nations , odd materially to the power and
popularity of foreign , works among us * For in our Jangmige the mysticism , and obscurity of Germnn writers are absolutely unreadable and unintelligible ^ Wo look for clearness of thought and expression in a book , nnd the unpopularity of every wrifcer here is in proportion to his want of this element of perspicuity . TJ » is fact , however , the admirable translator of the . "Life and Letters of Sehleiormncher " scums to have felt ; for in the execution of her task she has carefully avoided all verbal "Germanisms , " and bus , consequently , succeeded in giving" its , in « popular style , the life of a , man whoso name is worthy of becoming- n household word among us , When eight ? years more shall have elapsed—a period , according to some of our prophetic interpreters of holy writ , that ahnll mark tlio commencement of all possible blessings— -it will bo a century
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since the birth of Schleiermacher , and it is now a quarter of a century since he died . He kept the " noiseless tenor of his way " preacher and professor of theology in an age of wars and revolutions , when poets and philosophers . who made fame common were numerous in every land . From his life and letters , no > y before us , we have no difficulty in forming a high opinion of the German preacher and professor . In some respects lie may be pronounced a kind of German Dr . Watts , for his whole feeling and understanding were faithfully and assiduously employed ni the service of religion , all Ins aims and duties being , through a long life ,, set upon the perfecting of himself and the happiness of his fellow-men . And notwithstanding his talents and learning , his fame will rest chiefly on his c / iaracter To Christianity he was devoutly attached , and to those among the cultivated classes of his age who contemned it he addressed a
series of ' Discourses on Religion , " which had a general . and beneficial effect . While Schleiermacher professed his firm , belief in historical Christianity , he nevertheless roused the indifferent and the sceptical by appealing directly to the true religious sentiment within us as the source of piety to God and love to man . But sermons are , perhaps , heard by more and read by fewer persons than any other human productions . The perennial freshness of the Christian religion itself testifies against the idea that it is ' in . its nature unwelcome to humanity . It is its own evidence of its divine and indestructible truth . Sermons and discourses on religion may , indeed , state this fact over and over again , but they can add little to its force and authority : Hence , perhaps , the short-lived popularity of the divine for every generation loves to perceive and teach in its own wav the eternal principles of the Christian revelation .
The German theological professors are proverbially prodigies , 6 i learning-. They have genius , and are partial to the broadest culture . . Literature-, philosophy ; and science are subordinated by them to the interests of religion . They may , however , from their extreme bookish habits , be top deeply saturated with dreams and opinions , and too scantily acquainted with the world , to be among the foremost practical religious teachers and leaders of the world— -the class of whom the Apostle Paul ; is the type . Schleiermacher , however , stands high among religious teachers and reformers , and as far as a very long epistolary correspondence can be said to constitute the life o ' f a manj we have the life of Schleiermacher complete -enough in the present volumes :-For though it may be a new species of autobiographythere issifter all , no truer index to a man s heart ¦
, , than is generally contained in his letters ; especially when , as m the present instance , the writer freely , and honestly expresses his feelings and opinions on all subjects that come under his notice . We think that from the poem of the poet , . the : tale of the novelist , the an ^ ala of the historian , we may learn pretty accurately how much each ¦« able to < lo , what his powers may be , but we may not learn ¦ ranch perhaps of what he himself really is . But from the letters of a distinguislied man it is easy to get at his innermost feelings , he photographs himself—objective interests scarcely ever intervening between himself and friends , either-to conceal or modify his foeliiigs . In the sonnets of Shakcspcnre it has been suggested that the great ; dramatist ' s autobiography is written . No doubt those sonnets
evince much that was private and personal hi the life of the poet , but they certainly cannot be accepted as autobiography . It is nob so , howevci % with an author ' s letters , collected and arranged-with strict regard to the time and place of their production . In our best biographies is not a letter frequently the most interestinpr portion of the book , be the life as graphic and well written as it may ? There is nothing , however , wanting- in the present volumes to enable the reader to become acquainted with a great and good man , whose affectionate heart mid unclouded intellect we cannot but hold in the highest esteem . It is something , too , to learn how they feel and think , and what they , say and do in social life in Germnny , and Schleierniacher informs us all about these things in liis times .
The correspondence of Schleiennacher shows how closely German criticism resembles our own , though for the most part German , politics and philosophy may he very different from ours . Havingbeen informed that as certain literary journal had censed to exist , ho observed , " It is quite in ncconliuuto with the laws of necessity that publications which are deficient in vigour , though not fiiilinfc in good intentions , must perish , ' while others which , " Jn spite ot their bad tendencies , are conducted with a certain amount of ability and skill ,-flourish , and deserve to -do bo . " / ' Siipes , " lie tellp us , " are the only persons who ever do anything , thoug-b . he himself knew that they Rornetimos neglect to do many things , for ho informs the . world thufc his friend Sehlegel kit Iiiim in flie lurch while translating Pluto . - " Is noj ! wit , " he asks , " the offspring of u light hearts and a lively imagination ? " There is . much force and wisdom in the following : —
** Be not astonished that' your « ood mother clings so strongly to life . Why should she not ! She is imloiiendont , she has . reason to bit sutiajieil with hoi- children , nnd ia happy in their lovo . To dcupina life is cither enorrnous pritlti or revolting levity ; to ho indifferent to Hie is only yiermittml to him who feels Unit his inner being is a ripe fruit , and who enjoys himself us buoU , ov to him whoso roul lifo ia already destroyed , nnd' to wliow therefore , death ia no more than an outward formality ; but to be aide to detach ourselves from life in spito of nature ' s clinging to it , that is the highost triumph of faith and religion . Often tho lusfc radiant moment is called rapidly into being , even in souls wherein the otyrmd light has ngt always sUo « o with bright effulgence " tn ilin Rnnniul volumo of hia "Xi ' ro nnd Lottors" ho is more
Bnoculative , but ho never travcla into a lnwl of inietfl where liin roniliTrt cjiu poarcely get a glimpse of him . Jfe ip plain to all understandinfffl , yet truly profound . In a letter to Jiuiobiho says , " I will > ot even in eternity allow , myself to bo deprived of tho right to philiiBophino . And ho goes on to Bay , " Whou my Christian I ' celing is conacipus ot ft
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W& The Leader emdSuhirda ^ AnalffsL [ Feb . 18 , I 860 .
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* Tfia Zifo of ( Sehloiarmdcho ; as wrfbUlotl tn his dvtolilogrnpfiff andZot * ta < 9 . Translated fton the Gonnnnby Fiibdkbioa Wowan . Xjondon ; Smith , lSUler , and Oo .
A^Germalsr Pastor* Has Becom
A ^ GERMAlSr PASTOR . *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 18, 1860, page 164, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2334/page/16/
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