Essays on German Literature. By Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen. (T. Fisher
Unwin.)—Mr. Boyesen, who is "Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures in Columbia College," has given us here a volume of no little merit. His style is vigorous, though the English is not unexceptionable (where, we wonder, did he find the epithet " disgruntled" ? M. Edmond Soberer is described as a " malignant and disgruntled Frenchman "), and his criticism keen and subtle. Goethe occupies a little more than half the volume ; the rest is devoted to " Schiller," " The German Novel " (including appreciations of Spielbagen, Heyse, and Georg Ebers), and " The Romantic School in Germany." This second half we have read with almost unmixed pleasure. As to Goethe, we find ourselves somewhat out of harmony with the writer. He quotes with approval Professor Blackie's dicta about the German poet's character, dicta which about come to this, that the develop- ment of his genius was promoted by, and therefore justified, his habitual falsehood in his dealings with women. Mr. Boyesen is not, indeed, quite sure. We find, and are glad to find, that he wavers a little, having, we presume, a lingering regard for the old-fashioned Ten Commandments (which, by-the-way. are quite as much wanted in critics' studies as in churches). Still, his tone on the whole is objectionable. " Titans must have their amuse- ments." some one, we think, a countryman of Professor Blackie, has said. "A man shall be judged for the deeds done in the body" is a more authoritative utterance, and, we take it, the " de- velopment of genius" will scarcely be an effective plea in arrest of judgment.
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