— 4— 4 and treating with a new spirit the master-pieces of Greece and Rome— give a powerful and unexpected impulse to the literary spirit.

The happy and unrivalled revolution that ensued appears all the more imposing in contrast with the dismal period which preceded it. Nor was this revolution perceptible in poetry alone, but it was the result of the united efforts of genius in all branches of human knowledge; for no other modern people can boast of having produced at the same time a Klopstock, a Lessing and a Kant, men who, together with many other champions of liberty, were all instrumental in causing that deep, national movement and bringing about so great and fundamental a change in poetry, criticism and philosophy.

They were followed, in the last decenniums of the century, by the heroes of the memorable period of wild fermentation, of strom and stress, with its manifestation of an impetuous spirit akin to that which was then working in America and France; then by the romantic school, and, lastly, by the rising of the two greatest literary geniuses since William Shakespeare, Schiller and Goethe, who raised German literature to the lofty position it has occupied ever since.

It would indeed be astonishing if the outer world had been wilfully blind to the sudden impulse and awakening of so many millions of civilized beings; the two neighbouring nations, the French and the English, having always been more closely allied than the other nations by material and political ties, were naturally the first affected by it. The order of things was reversed. In spite of their deep-rooted prejudices and proverbial self-sufficiency the French, heretofore admired and anxiously imitated, had to acknowledge the fact that their despised neighbours had, in a very short time, made extraordinary progress and that the time had come, admiringly to acknowledge the master-pieces that had sprung from the happy blending of the Teutonic genius with the spirit of classical antiquity. What had scarcely occurred since the days of Martin Luther, there appeared frequent translations from the German into English and French, Goethe's Werther, Schiller's Robbers circulated in the whole civilized world, and Götz von Berlichingen, to which we shall have occasion to refer again, gave rise to a deluge of chivälrie literature, chiefty in England.

Madame de Staéël, in defiance of the indignation of her imperial master, did away with the remains of the still lingering prejudice against German barbarism.

But in no other European country did the genius of Germany with its glorions victories make its entrance more triumphantly than in Great Britain, however obstinately the defenders of staunch anglicanism opposed the then unwelcome, suspicions intruders.

It is our immediate task to treat of the further course of this influence and the gradua] amalgamation of the two elements which were thus brought into close contact, a subject highly instructive and interesting, but to treat which fully and satisfactorily would be the work of years.

Space and time compel us to limit ourselves to tracing simply the outlines and pointing out the prominent figures and chief agencies.