most that can be said of him is, that the tendency of his writings is not decidedly immoral. But surely something more is necessary than this negative quality to constitute a moral poet. We are not aware that there is any thing in Schiller's productions that should give him a preeminence in this respect above the rest of his countrymen. In the estimation of the Germans, Schiller has long held the foremost place among native poets, and probably will long continue to do so. A select circle prefer Goethe, but Schiller is the poet of the people. This popularity is to be attributed partly to the fact that he is more intelligible than most of his countrymen, and partly to the zeal with which, in early life, he advocated liberal sentiments; but principally to the circumstance that he was a dramatic poet, that he wrote for the stage, and was therefore continually brought before the people. A play-writer possesses, in this respect, great advantages, as has been observed by Richter with particular reference to the case of Schiller. "I will devote," says this writer, in his Katzenberger's Badereise, "a brief episode to the benefit of stage-poets, showing why they are in much greater danger of being made fools to vanity than other authors. In the first place, it is evident, how far one of the latter class with his scattered recluse-readers, honored but little, and that only by cultivated men, -applauded only in the silence and retirement of studies a hundred miles distant from each other, read perhaps twice in succession, but not heard forty times in succession,-- it is evident, I say, how far such an Irus in fame, a John Lackland,' falls below the stage-poet, who not only wears these laurel-gleanings upon his head, but adds to them the rich harvest, that prince and chimney-sweep, and every generation, and every age, get his thoughts into their heads and his name into their mouths, -that often the most miserable market-towns, whenever a more miserable strolling actor's theatre moves into them, harness themselves to the triumphal car upon which such a writer is borne, &c. "There are a hundred other advantages which, by means of the figure of omission (figura præteritionis), we might mention, but which we prefer to omit; this, for example, that a dramatic author (and oftentimes he is present and hears all) employs, as it were, a whole corporation of hands in his service (at home one man only holds him in his left, vexatiously turning over the leaves with the right); — furthermore, that he is learned by heart, not only by the actors, but, after continual repetition, by the hearers also, -that he is continually praised anew in all the standing, though tedious, theatrical notices of the daily and monthly journals. Whence follow many things; for example, that an ordinary writer, like Jünger or Kotzebue, lives longer in his plays which are heard, than in his novels which are read. Hence we may explain the fact, that our cold Germany has exerted herself so much and so well for Schiller and so little for Herder. For, if worth were the measure of gratitude, Herder, the earlier, the loftier, the more many-sided genius, the Oriental-Grecian, the opposer (in his popular ballads) of Schiller's reflective poetry, the spirit who labored with forming energy in so many sciences, and whose only fault was, that he did not fly with all his wings, but, like those prophet-figures, was covered by four, while raised by two, this man would have deserved a monument, not by the side of, but above Schiller, if, as has been said, it were not for the actors, or the public which has so few sides to match his many-sidedness." It is much to be regretted that a writer of Schiller's standing, in this age of the world, should have devoted the principal part of his life to a department of art so questionable in its tendency, and so surely destined to decay, as the drama. We have neither time nor inclination to explain our objections to theatrical amusements. The fact, that Goethe in his latter years regretted having devoted so large a portion of his time and talents to these pursuits,* furnishes a stronger argument against them than any reasoning which we could offer. The relation in which Schiller and Goethe stood to each other, has led to many comparisons of their respective merits. We shall not repeat the parallel so often drawn, and for which there is, in our estimation, so little ground. Goethe and Schiller differed too widely, in kind and in degree, to admit of any just comparison between them. Of the latter we will not say, as was said by some of his own *See Wilhelm Meister's Wanderjahre, chap. 13th, Vienna ed. 1821. - countrymen, judging in the spirit of a too narrow distinction, that he was 66 no poet," on the contrary, in the words of Goethe, "we make bold to call him a poet, and a great poet;" and, though constrained to place him immeasurably below his illustrious colleague, we cannot but allow him a high rank in that immortal band, who by their learning and their genius have raised Germany to an equality with the most cultivated nations of the earth, and given to the German mind an influence over the rest of the world, the more remarkable from the fact, that the physical and political condition of that country have precluded it from acquiring any ascendency by extension of commerce or force of arms. ART. V. Sermons on Duties belonging to Some of the Conditions and Relations of Private Life. By JOHN G. PALFREY, A. M., Professor of Biblical Literature in the University of Cambridge. Boston. Charles Bowen. 1834. 8vo. pp. 368. WE are happy in expressing our obligation to the diligent and faithful author of these discourses for this valuable contribution to the stores, already rich and various, of pulpit instruction. Of the topics of preaching, few, we believe, will be found more profitable, than those of the class composing this volume. For, however necessary or interesting may be the discussion of other subjects, as the illustration of the doctrines, the exhibition of the evidences or of the history of Christianity, and no one will doubt, that in their due places and proportion these will engage the attention of every faithful teacher, there are none, which may more profitably be enforced, than those relating to the private and social duties of life. The intimacy and sacredness of these relations, in which almost every human being, directly or by reflection, partakes; their close connexion with the highest interests of human life; the daily recurrence of some of the duties they involve; the delicacy, arduousness, and sometimes the perplexity of others, and the undeniable importance of all in every just view that can be taken of religion, secure for this class of topics an interest, which sermons, it must be confessed, do not always excite. Every one perceives, that here are considered relations which he fills now, or hopes to fill hereafter, or of the discharge of which by others he is the object, and is therefore personally concerned, that they be fulfilled faithfully. It is precisely of this last description of duties men love to hear more than of any others. On the same principle, that it is pleasanter to think of the sins of our neighbour than of our own, we prefer to hear of the offices, which others are to perform for us, rather than of those, which we are to render to them. Accordingly, of the vast body of sermons preached or published, those have been welcomed with special pleasure, and, what is more to the purpose, have better accomplished, we are disposed to believe, the objects of preaching, which have treated, as is successfully done by the writer before us, the duties of the aged and of the young, of husbands and wives, of parents and children, of brethren and sisters, of masters and servants; or those, which grow out of the particular conditions or changes of the human lot, as of prosperity or affliction, riches or poverty, sickness or health. Hence they who are conversant with the sermons of the most eminent practical preachers, will not fail to distinguish, as claiming special commendation, those of Barrow, on some of the most common personal virtues, as patience, contentment, and industry in our callings, or against some social vices, as censoriousness, evil speaking, and meddling with other men's business; those of Tillotson, on the parental education of children and sincerity of speech; others of Secker, on the duties of the rich and poor, of the young, the aged, and the sick; the admirable devotional discourses of Cappe, upon the uses of sickness, and the benefits of affliction; with many more recent productions by our own, as well as by English divines, whom we need not here particularize. These discourses of Professor Palfrey are entitled to an honorable place with those we have mentioned. And they have the superior advantage of presenting within the limits of a single volume, of no ordinary typographical beauty, a natural and systematic arrangement of most of the private -N. S. VOL. XI. NO. III. VOL. XVI. 50 social duties. For ourselves, we have perused them with satisfaction and thankfulness to the author. The careless, and we know not but we should add, the critical reader, will scarcely help complaining of the occasional length of the sentences, and sometimes, it must be confessed, of an involved expression, leaving him in doubt of a meaning, which upon search, he may find too good and full to be lost or obscured. But with this exception, he will not fail to profit from the discriminating, weighty, and instructive manner of the preacher; from the tone of deep seriousness, moreover, and not seldom the eloquence, with which his various topics are enforced. Of these topics, there will be found some in this volume of acknowledged difficulty and delicacy. The relations, for example, of the rich and the poor, of masters and of servants, as existing in our free community, and under our forms of government, are such as require, for their discussion, a tender and judicious, as well as faithful hand. The mutual rights and obligations of husbands and wives, the heart-stirring question, when power shall be exercised and when submission must be yielded, are points of indescribable interest. And to exhibit faithfully, yet reverently, "The Duties of the Aged" is no easy task to a preacher, himself scarcely in the meridian of his days. Now upon these, and points of like. delicacy, Mr. Palfrey seems to us to have exercised singular judgment and fidelity. Thus, in discoursing of the duties and temptations of old age, having spoken of its tendency to avarice and selfindulgence, he remarks, that the aged are in danger of becoming opinionative and dogmatical. And in his illustration of this, we are reminded of the sentiment of the eminent Dr. Beddoes, who in complaining of the unreasonable distrust usually felt of young physicians, and the blind confidence as generally reposed in the old, observes, that the boasted experience of the latter, may possibly prove only an accumulation of errors, the antiquated prejudices of youth, which years had not corrected, but rather multiplied and made in veterate. "The advantage of experience is what gives age the better claim to the praise of wisdom. But he is not always most experienced who is oldest. Experience is not merely given by years; it is to be gathered by care; and, of two men, he will |