THE GERMANS.
(To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPEriTATOR."1 Sin,—Lord Cromer, in his review of Mr. Robertson's The Germane, points out that M. Fustel do Coulanges has said that German civilization " has arisen solely from without." Lord Cromer also says that in respect to "high literary talent the Germans have lagged far behind other nations." An bearing upon and confirming these statements, the following remarks of Goethe, in Eckermann's Conversations with Goethe, are of some interest :- December 3rd, 1824.—" Our own literature is chiefly the offspring of theirs [the English] ! Whence have wo our novels, our tragedies, but from Goldsmith, Fielding, and Shakespeare ? And in our own day, where will you find in Germany three literary heroes who can be placed on a level with Lord Byron, Moore, and Walter Scott ? "
May 3rd, 1827.—" We Germans are of yesterday. We have indeed been properly cultivated for a century ; but a few centuries more mud still elapse before so much mind. and elevated culture will become universal amongst our people that they will appreciate beauty like the Greeks, that they will be inspired by a beautiful song, and that it will be said of them ' It is long since they were barbarians.' " Folly Gate, Okehampton.
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