religious bias which ever marked the character of Schiller, and which showed itself in a strong predilection for an ecclesastical profession. This desire remained with him for many years, and it was with extreme regret he was obliged to give up what had been his darling project. His father, however, had made different arrangements for his son, and by placing him in the millitary seminary of the Grand Duke of Wurtemburg, he virtu ally deprived him of the liberty of choice. Benefits were showered upon his family; his father was raised to the rank of major, and young Schiller was promised an appointment in the Royal service.

A desire from the Duke was equivalent to a command, and Friederich complied with the wishes of his father; already he was learning to sacrifice his own wishes, but the

obedience and affection of a child, while it softened his disinclination, could not entirely. smother the keen resentment which the renunciation of his early hopes produced. Intellectual liberty had been his passion; all books not included in the school routine were denied to the students. This only served to increase the desire, and the moments stolen from his severer studies, to be devoted to his favorite authors, were the happiest of his school life. If he had been charmed with Klopstock, he was inspired with Goethe. The teachings of this great master found an echo in the hitherto slumbering thoughts of Schiller, by maintaining that the classical spirit of every nation must be found in the genius of its own romance. This idea, so in consonance with his own belief, formed for 'him the determination to thoroughly acquaint

himself with German literature before he attempted the study of any other. Still the desire to serve God in a religious profession remained dominant in his heart, and he attempted once more to influence his masters by assuring them he was not calculated for the dry study of jurispudence he was successful only in obtaining as a compromise.

THE PERMISSION TO EXCHANGE MEDICINE
FOR LAW.

After passing through a strict course of German poetry, he commenced a translation of Shakspeare, by Wieland.

Hear what he says of the work:

"When I first grew acquainted with this poet, I was indignant with his coldness-indignant with the insensibility which allowed

him to jest and sport amid the highest pathos. Led by my knowledge with more modern poets to seek the poet in his works; to meet and sympathize with his heart; to reflect with him over his subject; it was insufferable to me that this poet gave me nothing of himself. Many years had he my entire reverence-certainly my earnest study---before I could comprehend, as it were, his individuality. I was not yet fit to comprehend nature at first hand." Thus in study and contemplation the man's mind developed; long before the genius of the poet manifested itself. But his mental thraldom irritated him; his proud spirit chafed with indignation at the restraints and conventionalities which surrounded him, and he longed to be free.

The elements by which he was surrounded were favorable to the expansion of such an

intellect; the time had come when the multitude, of which he was but one, desired most earnestly a leading mind to take the initia tive, and setting aside obsolete codes, address himself to men.

In Friederich Schiller they had found such a one, and can we wonder that when the Robbers appeared, by its wild extravagance, its turbulent and mad upheavings, its intense earnestness, was stirred the depth of the German heart, and spreading through inflannnable France, rested not until it reached the passionless shores of cold, immovable England, and roused to thought men who had been considered immobility itself?

They beheld in Karl Moor, (the hero of the play, one whose excess of virtue or exaggerated nobleness, drives him from the habitation of men. His sympathy with the poor