CHRISTIAN JACOB SALICE CONTESSA (1767-1825) Was born at Hirschberg, on the 21st of February 1767, in which town he was a merchant. He lived, for the greater part of his life, at his country-seat Liebenthal, near Greifenberg, where he died on the 11th September 1825. CONTESSA was a clever writer, and his compositions abound with genuine wit and healthy humour. In conjunction with his brother Karl, he prepared "Dramatische Spiele und Erzählungen," and the piece "Das Bild der Mutter und das blonde Kind:" the latter is very much liked.

Contessa's poetry is always given in one peculiar form,— but the diction is generally good, and the descriptions are animated. While imprisoned in the fortress at Stettin, on account of certain connexions which rendered him obnoxious to the government, he brought out his novel of “ Almanzor,” a work that is so far interesting, as it exhibits a faithful picture of its author's springs of thought.

KARL WILHELM SALICE CONTESSA (1777-1825) Was born on the 19th of August 1777, at Hirschberg, in Silesia. He was a Doctor of Philosophy. He died on the 2nd June 1825.

This writer was the brother of the former Contessa, and the intimate friend of Houwald; an unassuming, goodnatured, and amiable man. He has been described by the novelist Hoffmann, in his "Seraphions-Brüder," under the name of Sylvester. As a poet, he distinguished himself; but as a dramatic writer more especially has he acquired his fame. His comedies of" Das Räthsel," "Der unterbrochene Schwätzer," "Der Findling," and "Der Talisman," have been each very favourably received by the public. There is a truthfulness in the development of these pieces, added to a fine flow of dialogue, that bespeak their literary value.

In co-operation with De la Motte Fouqué, and F. A. Hoffmann, he published his "Kindermährchen," which are justly admired for the easy and amusing style and the vein of pleasant ingenuity in which they are written.

JOHANN JACOB WILHELM HEINSE (1749-1803) Was born on the 16th of February 1749, at Langeweisen, near Ilmenau. At Jena he prosecuted the study of jurisprudence, and subsequently became the librarian of the elector Friedrich Carl Joseph, at Mainz. He died on the 22nd of June 1803, at Asschaffenburg.

HEINSE was a disciple of the Wieland school, but he eventually departed from the principles of his prototype. He affected the sensual mannerism of Wieland, which appears in his "Sinngedichte" (1791), as also in the translation of "Petron" (1794). His "Kunst Roman,” “ Ardinghello," and "Hildegard von Hohenthal," may be said to obey, without any restriction whatever, the promptings of a most voluptuous fancy. The sketches of character, and the delineations of nature, to be met with in these two works, are most nervous and powerful; nevertheless, the various narratives have been left by their author in a fragmentary state.

But we must, in justice to morality, say, that the voluptuous representations in which his novels abound, make them a dangerous kind of reading to weak minds and unformed characters. On the other hand, we cannot help admitting, that the novel of “Ardinghello" contains a multitude of original descriptions of natural scenery, while his allusions to the remains of ancient art are written in the same winning and extraordinary force of language.

JOHANN GOTTLIEB SEUME (1763-1810) Was born the 29th of January 1763, at Passau, near Weissenfels. He was the son of a farmer, in poor circumstances. Count Hohenthal-Knauthayn took a fancy to him when a boy, and had him educated. After having finished his

humanistical studies at Leipzic, he determined upon walking to Paris, but on the frontiers of Hessen he was seized by recruiting soldiers, and transported to Canada, to fight against the rebels. When he returned, he made two unsuccessful attempts to escape. Latterly he resided at Warsaw, serving as a Russian officer — eventually retiring to Leipzig. In 1801, he set out for another great pedestrian tour to Sicily, the narrative of which he gives in his "Spaziergang." He then (in 1805) took a similar journey through Moscow, Petersburg, Finland and Sweden, which he describes in his "Mein Sommer." He died at Töplitz, on the 13th June 1810.

SEUME was a man of blunt and energetic disposition, imbued with an ardent love of truth and justice, but also with a prejudice touching the corruptions of human nature, -one consequence of which is, a kind of harshness and severity in his delineations; still that very feature is indicative of such depth and sincerity of feeling, of such noble manliness, such candour and beauty of character, that we cannot help loving and venerating a man who so eminently asserts his German origin and descent. Seume has written many very clever things in prose and poetry, which have procured him the high position in the German national literature, which he will doubtless always hold. His Spaziergang nach Syracus," projected and executed during a journey which he made on foot, in the year 1801, through Austria, Italy, and France, is a most amusing and entertaining volume; and the same may be said of his account of the tour which he made from Petersburg to Finland, and which bears the title of "Mein Sommer im Jahre 1803." The introduction to this is a curious memorial of his ardent and deeply-seated passion for freedom and patriotism. The tragedy "Miltiades" is remarkable for the manly and exalted tone of its sentiments, and the vigour of its thoughts and language; it has little or no theatrical value, as it is absolutely deficient in stage-effect;

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but it has, however, a poetical value. His autobiography, “Mein Leben,” is one of the most entertaining and attractive specimens of its kind; it is written with simplicity and naïveté, and is a vivid and, most likely, an accurate reflection of Seume's own personal character. His poetry is of the same tendency as all his other writings,—simple, unassuming, and manly.

MODERN TIME.

(1813-1820.)

ANOTHER era in German literature now dawns upon our view, the instrument in bringing to maturity genius of quite a novel kind, ascending the Parnassus of Fame by new and untried paths, and adopting for its material the passing, as well as the coming, interests and events of the age with which it is conversant. The great body of the people were at that time called upon to take up arms against Napoleon Buonaparte,—that great conqueror, who, for the second time, was pressing onwards with his indomitable troops, and once again infesting the frontiers of Germany. It was a time when no one waited to be asked, but hurried to the national standard, to join in the defence of his country, and to exchange lyre and harp for sword and spear. It was an epoch of great deeds, of valorous exploits. Freedom took, as it were, a fresh aspect, the promise of a new form of nationality, whose constitution was as yet hidden in futurity. Young and ardent poets were stirred with a sudden and overpowering inspiration, and came forward with their Homeric war-songs. Poetry was heard to break forth in noble and joyous appeals, which were, after all, but the echoes of the jar and conflict of battle, emulating, in its tones, the clash of steel with steel, the booming of the cannon, and the latest sigh of the wounded warrior, devoted to an ecstatic murmuring of the name of the far distant mistress of his heart. But, above all the nobleminded young men who were banded together into the "Lützow Corps," we must signalize that enthusiastic, that lofty-minded, that sweet and gentle youth, who nerved his own and his comrades arms, and benefited his country and the world, by his patriotic "Kriegslieder;" it need hardly be added, that we mean