and never suffering any careless expression to escape him, or attempting to deliver his thoughts without arranging them in the clearest manner, it became habitual to him. * Having thus selected a few examples from the best and most approved English writers, it may be useful to add some cursory remarks on the great advantages of strict and impartial correction; and of acquiring a babit of close attention in literary pursuits. These are, indeed, the only steps by which a writer can attain to eminence, or by which he can expect to gain the approbation of his readers, as well as to secure his own reputation. The advantages of correction are two-fold; in the first place, as it contributes to render a work more complete and perfect; and, secondly, as it not unfrequently places the subject in a new light, and enables the author, by the aid of mature reflection, to add such ideas as tend more fully to illustrate and simplify it. Besides, every literary composition, in its unfinished state, is liable to error and misconstruction. It is, at first, rudis indigesta-que moles," a chaos of words and ideas; but when it is subjected to the strict and impartial eye of criticism, the alterations and additions, which it receives, quickly reduce it to shape and order. And here it may not be unentertaining to observe the different manner in which authors in general have acted, with regard to their works. By some, the limæ labor," or task of correction, is undertaken with a mixture of pleasure and anxiety; by others, with difficulty and dislike. Some begin regularly with the outline, and gradually finish their design " with patient touches of unweary'd art;" whilst those whose genius is more active, and less accustomed to restraint, abandon what they have written, as it were, by a kind of curiosa felicitas, in the heat of fancy and the ardour of imagination ;either from disdain of correction, or from despair of improvement. Others, again, employ at once memory and invention; and, with lit tle intermediate use of the pen, form and polish large masses, by continued meditation, and write their productions only when, in their own opinion, they have completed them. It is related of Virgil, that his custom was to pour out a great number of verses in the morning, and pass the day in retrenching exuberances and correcting inaccuracies. The method of Pope, also, as may be collected from his translation of the Iliad, was to write his first thoughts in his first words, and gradually to amplify, decorate, rectify, and refine them. + It is a sure mark of ingenuousness and candour, when an author receives, with temper and moderation, the suggestions of those who are better able than himself to form a dispassionate opinion of the merits and defects of his works. Of this, Pope has given us an example in his own person, in the " Prologue to the Satires :" "Did some more sober critic come abroad, If wrong, I smil'd; if right, I kiss'd the rod." This great poet, says his biographer, well knew that the mind is always enamoured of its own productions, and would not, therefore, trust his first fondness. He consulted his friends, and listened with great willingness to criticism; and, what was of more importance, he consulted himself, and let nothing pass against his own judgment. His contemporary, Wycherley, does not, however, appear to have possessed the same open and liberal sentiments. He submitted his poems to the revisal of Pope, who corrected them with equal freedom and judg ment; but Wycherley, who had a bad heart and an insufferable share of vanity, was soon disgusted at the ingenuousness of Pope, insomuch, that he came to an open and ungenerous rupture with him. A different picture is presented in the conduct of Boileau and Racine, who were accustomed to communicate their works to each other with the utmost sincerity and unreserved. ness; of which, many amiable in * Boswell's Life of Johnson.-Vol. i. page 181. + Johnson's Life of Pope. I shall conclude this subject with the following excellent remarks by Dr. Blair:-"We must observe, that there may be an extreme in too great an anxious care about words. stances appear in their correspondence. Boileau shewed to his friend the first Sketch of his Ode on the Taking of Namur. It is entertaining to contemplate a rude draught by the hand of such a master, and it is no less We must not retard the course of pleasing to observe the good temper thought, nor cool the heat of imawith which he receives the objections gination, by pausing too long about of Racine. Racine, in return, sub- every word that is employed. There mitted his tragedies, as they were is, on certain occasions, a glow of written, to the correction of Boileau. composition which should be kept It does not display much prudence up, if we hope to express ourselves or judgment in an author, to indulge happily, though at the expense of an undue fondness for his first pro- allowing some inadvertencies to ductions. The records of literature, pass. A more severe examination indeed, present us with too frequent of these must be left to the work of examples of writers, whose fame correction. For, if the practice of has suffered from this over-weaning composition be useful, the laborious partiality, and this wilful blindness task of correcting is no less so; it to their own errors. They have is indeed absolutely necessary to thus allowed many objectionable our reaping any benefit from the passages, sanctioned either by the habit of composition. I should taste or the licentiousness of the therefore advise that what is written age, to stand uncorrected, which it should be laid by for some little would, in all respects, have been time, till the ardour of composition better to have blotted from their be past; till the fondness for the works. Shakspeare, Otway, Beau- expressions we have used be worn mont and Fletcher, Congreve, Dry-off, and the expressions themselves den, Farquhar, Vanbrugh, and other dramatic poets of eminence, have transmitted their names to posterity with greatly diminished lustre, owing to this very cause. Few, indeed, are there, who imitate the praiseworthy resolution which Waller displayed, when he expressed his firm determination" to erase from his poems every line which did not contain some incentive to virtue;" or who deserve the tribute of praise which Lord Lyttleton, in his prologue to the tragedy of Coriolanus, so justly paid to the memory of his friend and companion, Thomson : "His virtuous muse employ'd her well None but the noblest passions to in- One line which, dying, he could wish be forgotten; and then reviewing our D. F JEAN WOLFGang Goethe, one of the most celebrated authors of Germany, who, on account of his advanced age, is become the patriarch of German literature, was born at Frankforton-the-Main, the 28th of August, 1749. He was the son of a celebrated Jurisconsult, and received an education fa. vourable to the development of those talents with which nature had richly endowed him. After having studied law at Leipsick, and received a doctor's degree at Strasbourg, he established himself in his profession at Wetslar, in the year 1771; at this place he published his celebrated work, "The Sorrows of Werter," which was founded on a tragical adventure that had recentlyoccurred within his own knowledge. This work immediately drew public attention to the author, who had proved himself so intimately acquainted with the secret recesses of the human heart, and who, in a simple, but always interesting story, captivated the mind and heart of his reader. Courted by all the most distinguished men in Germany, Goethe soon found in the young Prince Charles Augustus of Weimar, not only a protector, but a friend. He travelled with this prince through Germany and Switzerland, and on his return in 1782 was appointed a privy councillor and president of the Ducal Chamber of Weimar. In 1786 he obtained the permission he so ardently desired of visiting Italy; after having travelled throughout this interesting country, and made some stay in Sicily, he resided at Rome, where he studied antiquities, and did not return to Weimar until he had been absent three years. This city, whose sovereign was constantly the protector of literature and the arts, was already called the Athens of Germany. A rare concourse of celebrated men was established in this city, among whom was distinguished in the first rank, Wieland, Herder, Schiller, and Goethe. The last seems to have partaken of a great portion of the public esteem previously bestowed on his illustrious predecesEur. Mag. Vol. 82. sors. The republic of letters has contained but few citizens who ever enjoyed such a bright reputation with so little alloy, and obtained while living the full meed of glory justly due to their useful labours. Goethe may be cited among the small number of fortunate writers, whose personal and mental qualifications have been honourably appreciated by their contemporaries. Loaded with years and honours, his first as well as his last step in the long career, which he has so honourably filled, have been marked by the most brilliant success; the esteem and veneration with which he has inspired his fellow-citizens, without excepting even his numerous rivals, approach to a species of adoration. His statue is about to be erected, at their expense, in Frankfort, his native city, and many other cities of the Germanic Confederation are disposed to follow this example. Napoleon, during his stay at Erfurt, desired to see Goethe; and, after a long and animated interview, placed the cross of the Legion of Ho nour on the breast of this honourable. man. "Goethe," said Madame de Staal, "represents in his own person the whole of German literature; not because there are no writers superior to him in some respects, but because he unites in himself all that distinguishes the German mind, and no one is so remarkable for a peculiar kind of imagination, which the Italians, the French, and the English acknowledge. We find in him a great profundity of ideas, a grace which springs from the imagination, a sensibility, although sometimes fantastic, yet even from that very quality more adapted to interest the readers, who seek in books materials wherewith to vary their monotonous existence, and seek in the charms of poetry to enliven the tedium occasioned by a paucity of the real occurrences in life." The genius of Goethe embraced every department of literature, physics, natural history, and the fine arts, 3T 1 : and he published works of almost every kind, such as songs, ballads, epic poems, tragedies, operas, comedies, proverbs, romances, &c. the list alone of his numerous writings would exceed the limits prescribed for our present article we can therefore only cite his principal works. Attached to Schiller by the ties of a long and constant friendship, a worthy rival of that great man, he has with no less fruitful hand enriched the stage of their common country. His first piece, Goetz de Berlichingen, or the Iron-handed Chevalier, an historical drama, had at first a prodigious success. The author traces in a naive and piquant manner a faith•ful picture of the chivalrous manners of former times. He afterwards published Faustus, a piece replete with original and brilliant beauties; Iphigenia in Tauris; Tasso; the Natural Daughter; Clavijo; Stella; Count Egmont, &c. He also translated two of the tragedies of Voltaire, Mahomet and Tancred. His epic poem, Hermann and Dorothea, has been translated into French by M. Bitaubé, and more successfully by Baron Humboldt, the elder brother of the illustrious traveller of that name. M. Boulard has also given an interlinear translation, The romance of Werter has been translated into all the languages of Europe. Auother romance, Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, the years of apprenticeship of William Meister, has been imitated rather than translated, in French, by M. Sevelinges, under the title of Alfred, who has also translated with less success the Elective Affinities, one of the last of Goethe's romances. Goethe published at Tubingen, in 1813, the first part of Memoirs of his Life, containing an account of his travels in Italy, and which, has created a great desire for the continuation, The Com plete Works of Goethe were published in numbers at Tubingen, from the year 1806 to 1810. He is an honorary member of the principal academies in Europe, and is a corresponding member of the French National Institute. For some years past he has relinquished the direction of the theatre at Weimar, and discontinued the large parties that used to be held at his house, where travellers from every part of Europe were accustomed to resort, curious to behold this celebrated man. 13 NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.dona 250 Plutarchi Alcibiades, textum é Cod. Paris. Recognovit, perpetua annotatione instruxit, dissertationem de fontibus hujus vita præmisit Christ. By M. Baehr. This is a new edition of Plutarch's Life of Alcibiades, corrected from manuscripts in Paris, with notes, and a dissertation on the sources whence Plutarch drew the materials of his life; by M. Baehr, professor at the university of Heidleberg. The author is well known in the literary world for several excellent philological treatises, such as his ingenious dissertation on Minerva Primigencia, and on the Apollo Patricius. But it is to the study of Plutarch that this young author has particularly dedicated his studies; he has given in the Meles temata of M. Creutzer observations on Artaxerxes, in which it may be perceived, that he has comprised all that remained to be done towards the elucidation of the text, and for the comprehension of ancient biography. He has now completed his labours on Alcibiades, and in a very short time he will finish his Pyrrhus. M. Baehr has closely adhered to the edition of Schoeffer, as his standard, which is most known all over Germany. He has with scrupulous assiduity collated all the manuscripts in the Royal Library of Paris, which is minutely described in the preface. This preface is followed by a critical dissertation on the sources whence Plutarch drew the materials which composed his life of Alcibiades. M. Baehr, confutes those commentators, who endeavour to shake the credit which the Greek historian merits. He maintains that I Plu tarch has invariably followed the › surest guides, such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Ephorns, Theopompus. He asserts that where the authorities, whence Plutarch drew his information, were of doubtful tendency, they were not received till after a mature deliberation; and these are not empty assertions. At pages 216 and 222, an example of M. Baehr's manner of reasoning may be seen; there we may be convinced that Plutarch often followed his originals so closely, that he appears in many places to have transcribed their very words, according to M. Schneider (ut exscripsisse adeo verba videatur). In the notes M. Baehr has followed his anthor step by step, and, on any particular event, we are directed to some passage in the more ancient authors, which supports him. Plutarch took a great deal from Xenophon, Thucydides, Theopompus, and Duris of Samos, who claimed an alliance with the family of Alcibiades. M. Baehr shows by a passage in the life of Pericles, that Plutarch did not undertake the life of that extraordinary man inconsiderately. Our author afterwards speaks of Satyrus, from whom Plutarch borrowed his 23d chapter, without any acknowledgement, but Athenæus treating on the same subject, supplies that deficiency, by ascribing it to Satyrus. M. Baehr afterwards passes to Antisthenes, who wrote a treatise on Alcibiades, which has not only served Plutarch, but all those who have commented on Alci. biades from Plato to Proclus, and Olympiodorus. Theophrastus has also contributed to assist him, and Philochores has furnished him with the materials of his twenty-sixth chapter on Hermes. Among the orators, Demosthenes, Antiphon, aud Andocides have been consulted. Even the comic poets such as Aristophanes, Eupolis, Archippus, Plato, and Phrynichus, have been quoted. M. Baehr has displayed great erudition in his researches, and has drawn the most just conclusions 16 from those revered authorities which have served as guides to Plutarch, and for this reason the historian has not bo been so faithful as he ought to have been in the biography of the others. We know that M. Heeren has already 3 treated on this subject, and, if M. Baehr would extend his labours to the whole of Plutarch with the same ta. lent he has exhibited in the work before us, philology would be much benefited by his labours. This young philologist has also pro mised us an edition of the Fragments of Ctesias, cum notis variorum ancient and modern, he will endeavour to vindicate Ctesias from the frivolous obJections of the learned Larcher. We cannot dismiss this work without call. ing the attention of our readers to an interesting digression. Cupid, res presented on the shield of Alcibiades, holding a thunder-bolt in his hand. M. Baehr reconciles this passage with a similar one from Athenæus, and with some epigrams from the Anthology of bavo M. Raffenel has excited a very lively interest in his work, which is augmented still more by the present circumstances; the war still continues, and we find it almost impossible to follow these actual events, without associating those which have long preceded them, and the principal causes which gave rise to them. In this history these matters are represented to us with fluency, clearness, and precision. We see, as it were, before our eyes, the Dramatis Persona, performing the most tragical spectacle, one party agitated by the passion of religious liberty, the other raging with the most bigoted and despotic fanaticism. Here we have the representation of manners and characters entirely unknown amongst us. Their language, habits, costume, and manners of living, are all different. Even their ferocious actions have a barbarous but savage grandeur about them, at which we are the more astonished, as civilization brings all nations to uniformity. Their wars, punishments, laws, and usages, all resemble those of more polished countries. This book presents many charming. digressions, when the importance of these events was not object of the author. We have only to regret, that the author did not extend his Laccount of the principal characters of this war, such as those of Prince Ypsilanti, and of Bobelina, who, to avenge the death of her husband, fitted |