Schiller. By James Sime, M.A. (Blackwood.)—Mr. Sime gives an excellent
account of the poet's life, and discusses fully the nu- merous contributions which he made to almost every branch of Gorman literature. We do not much like the plan of devoting one chapter to a period of Schiller's life, and the next to his writings during those years. Mr. Sime's book is very interesting and thorough, both as a biography and as a criticism. Especially good are the pages which are concerned with the intimacy of Schiller with Gaothe :— "For a long time, science had absorbed Goethe's energies, and he seemed to have lost eight of his true destiny. The consciousness of his poetical faculty, and a longing for its exercise, were rekindled by Schiller's enthusiasm ; and in association with one whom he loved so well, and who so well deserved his love, he resumed the career in which be had still to achieve some of his highest triumphs Most amply did Creethe repay the obligation, as Schiller again and again acknowledged. Schiller's tendency was to be too absorbed in his ideal world ; in intercourse with Goethe, he was compelled to descend from his cloudland, to present his abstract conceptions in concrete forms, to compare his ideas with facts, to observe, to
classify Idealism, which is not maintained in living contact with nature, is apt to end in mannerism ; and although Schiller's imagination was too powerful ever to content itself with shadowy and
unreal forms, it was in this direction that his peril lay. Goethe helped him to become conscious of it, and to strive against it." Mr. Sime gives numerous translations from the late Lord Lytton's "Poems and Ballads of Schiller," and several original versions from the later plays.
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