GERMANISM.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 69, 14 December 1907, Page 13

GERMANISM.

■"In nothing," said Matthew Arnold, "is ■England so great as in her poetry." We may widen the phrase and say, In nothing, is England so great as in her literature; f6r, though English prose has not the transcendent greatness of English- poetry, tholgift of the race is a gift for literature as a whole, not for only one species of it. Now, such greatness implies essentia! originality, and no competontl critic would deny. the presence.'of that quality in ample measure* in the literatiu'o of the English tongue. - But the, point wo have to notice is that this, originality implies no •"insularity," in the senso so'frequently carried by the word. There is, it is true, plenty of extravagance and , eccentricity in individuals—nowhere more, perhaps nowhere else so much; it was Arnold'.' : again;.; who insisted upon this eccentricity, and who quoted as an .illustration,,of, who, not'in ,t!ie : Dark.uVg'ep;, kit ( iui'the.'iiin6tcoiith centur'y,t,identitied-.Mahomet' with', the little/ horn of-the ho-guat in Daniel, and the Pope with the groat hqrn. But while this is true of. individuals,'it-is by no moans true of the nation or of the literature as a whole. Theso, on the contrary, have been rather remarkably susceptible to - the greater, and stronger streams of influonce from without*-. From Chaucer onwards there has been no, period in which ,'our literature has not been powerfully, swayed by some external influence. Not only tho classics, but French and Italian too ha'vo held sway at difforent times from the age of Chaucer down to the time of tiibbon. ''Unconsciously, perhaps, but unddr a 1 sound instinct, English authors havo obeyed the great critical principle laid down by De Quinccy. Pippins, he tolls us, become extinct unless they are saved by "some exotic but congenial inoculation." "So it is," he says, "with literature, of whatsoever land; unless crossed'by some other of different breed, they all tend to superannuation." And ho goes on to point to French literature as an instance of such decay, and as the best means of escaping a likofate he counsels tho English to cultivate an; intercourse with the juvonile literature of Germany. !

In De Quincey's opinion, then, "insularity," if .it means imporviousnoss to helpful influences from / abroad is, in matters of literature, rather, a French' characteristic than an .English one. _ And the advico lie gave to England was just to go on in the courso she liad already begun to tako; for before the essay on Richter, froni which the quotation comes, was written, Scott had translated "Lonoro,"' and "Coot? von Berlichingen," and William Taylor, of Norwich, had .written the greater part of the articles' on German litoraturo which wore afterwards gathered into .his "Historic Survey of German Litorature."''ln'fact the first period of German influence was already in its declino and tho second \ was opening. The fascination, of that extreme romanticism which is embodied in "Lenore," and "The Robbors," was decaying; for only the things which aro wholcsomo and fully 6ane aro permanently pleasing. But if this influenco was passing away, a now one, that of German philosophy, or of literature treated as the embodiment of thought,, was taking its place. The men who were chiefly instrumental in the introduction of it wero Coleridge and Carlyle. It .was'they who fashioned for the English mind that "Germanism" which in the earlier and intermediate poriods of. the nineteenth century was regarded with extravagant hope, or with ludicrous horror, or with simple awe, according to tho disposition and training and associations of the individual. Wo have lived in this atmosphere so long that wo cannot fully understand oither tho horror or the hope, yet it is not difficult to suggest considerations which, partly at least, explain theni. Germany was an old country which in litorary matters showed the vigour and the spirit of youth; for centuries, from tho Nibelungen Lied and the Minnesingers, she had slept, like Barbarossa, a charmed sleep, till suddenly, towards the close of the eighteenth century, the spell was broken, and they were a giant race who then awoke from their slumber. Lessing, and Schiller, and Goethe, Richter and Novajis, Kant and Eichte, were names destined to no merely ephemeral fame. The two last'carried on a tradition which had long existed in Germany, the others created for Europs a'virgin literature, which had not a little of the charm and • novelty of Grook literature when.it burst . upon Europe at the Renaissance. _ This was the secret of tho influence it wielded. This was why, when Carlyle discovered that neither Franco ifor England could yield what would satisfy his spirit, a friend told him that he would find what ho needed in German. This was why Goethe proved his "evangelist,", his "gospel of gospels." The fact, too, that Coleridge was the mouthpiece of Germany was in great part the secret of his fame and' influence, not as a poet, but as an oracle giving forth inspired utterances from Highgatc. The liberal-mindod in all fields of thought wore moved in the same way, Niebuhr revolutionised Roman history. Thirlwall, tho historian of Greece, translated him; Thomas Arnold, tho historian of Home, learnt Gorman in order to read him. Tho influence was like that of an invigorating, almost intoxicating Alpine air when breathed for the first time. That tempts «ravo people to cut capers, and the mood of uncritical adoration likewise produced ridiculous enough results: But the horror was equally real. Gorman thought was characterised by n terrible thoroughness for which a country where Mahomet could bo identified with tho little horn and

the Pope with tho great horn was ill-pre-pared, and it was the dismay thus aroused which gave rise to the expression "Germanism." It comprehended all mode* cf • thought which woro objectionable, because thoy were unfamiliar and "un-English." It embraced, therefore, all that was best in the Teutonic infliionco; but it was especially directed against anything that impinged upon theology. Milmnn, in his "History ol the Jows,"" gave rationalistic explanations of certain miriicles and spoke of Abraham as an Arab sheik. This was "Germanism." It is true that Milmnn himself declared that bo had borrowed not one explanation of a mirnolo from any German divine; but wV> could bolievo him?" It was obvious that tho book was too wicked to have its _ roots _ olsowlwre than in the opening to tho pit, and tli-it was Germany. A'arious divines lifted up their voices in solemn warnings.. Dr. .Pusoy himself, moro deeply learned than his brethren, deiended tho.Gormans. But Pusey's friends, Koblo and Newman were alarmed. He had touohed the accursed thing rationalism, and they were confident that it had a defiling powor which ho did not suspect. From their own point of view thoy were right. German thought refused to he confined within tho limits Pusey deemed proper, and we are told that ho never afterwards reforred to his book r on "The Theology of Germany" "without regrot and self-condemnation." German thought developod as it was bound to develop, and "Germanism" came flooding in at a hundred points in l , spite of all the mops wielded to keep it out Tho growing influence of Carlyle counted for much. It succeeded, in particular, in giving the right turn to English literary taste .In the earlier period of Germanism it is remarkable that tho poet who appealed most successfully to tho English reader was not Goethe, but Schiller. Orabb Robinson was the voice of one crying in tho wilderness. Coleridge stigmatised "Faust" as a moro canting tale of seduction. Do .Quincoy sneered at tho tasto of the Germans themselves for preferring Goethe to Schiller. Even Carlyle, guided by reputation, first turned to Schiller, though already, in 1823, ho had discovered that "this Goetho has as much in him as any ton of them"—thoy boing apparently contemporary men of letters in general. As late as 1840 bo refrained from choosing Goethe as his heroic man of letters, 'because he despaired of making him understood. Twonty or thirty years later Gootho is widely regarded ns the greatest man of letters since Shakespeare, and "Faust" as the greatest work of imagination of the nineteenth century. It was ..mainly Carlylo who I brought about this change. But thero woro other causes at work too. German thought had penotrated the circle in which George Eliot moved, and she made her debut in literature with a translation of "Strauss" a work well calculated to strengthen the doubt whether bounds could be sot to rationalism. Though Matthew Arnold based his, criticism upon Sainte Beuve, he regarded Goethe as tho' wisost man of modern Europe, and spoke of him as the physician of its iron ago', Some- curious sidelights might, bo thrown upon this development of German influence. We are told that from about 1840 onwards the fortunes of the Rossetti family waned; partly through the falling off in the demand for instruction in Italian. It had hitherto stood second among the foreign languages studied in England, but its place was now taken by German. On the whole, considering what has been done'in poetry and romance, in theology and philosophy, from the beginning to 'tho end, it is not too much to call tho nineteenth century in England the period of. German influence, and so much of solid worth has been gained from our intercourse with our Teutonic kindred that wo may well congratulato ourselves upon an "inoculation" so congenial.—Profossor Walker, in tho "Glasgow Herald." \ ■