he also exercised his talents in poetry, and some of his pieces evince considerable merit. His posthumous poems might be adduced in proof of the truth of our assertion: "Wilhelm von Humboldt's gesammelte Schriften."

FRIEDRICH HEINRICH VON DER HAGEN (1780) Born on the 19th of February 1780, at Schmiedeberg, in the Ukermark. Professor of the German language and literature at the university of Berlin.

The name and success of this writer in the more ancient literature of Germany has been long established. Conjointly with Grimm he invited the attention of the public to the treasures of ancient German poetry. Von der Hagen published the Niebelungenlied" in the original dialect, and wrote an erudite commentary on it, which he entitled "Die Niebelungen und ihre Bedeutung." We moreover possess an entertaining work by Hagen, entitled "Briefe in die Heimath,” which were written on a journey through Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, in search of all the existing codices of the Niebelungenlied, a narrative at once elegant, simple, and fascinating. He also edited the "Heldenbuch," alluded to in the introduction to our work, and is the author of a clever book, styled "Literarischer Grundriss der Geschichte der deutschen Poesie."

But Von der Hagen's last work is decidedly his greatest achievement; we mean his erudite publication called "Die deutschen Minnesänger,” in which will be found the finest specimens yet published, of the writings of these wandering minstrels, with elaborate commentaries and valuable dissertations.

In 1830, pro

JACOB LUDWIG KARL GRIMM (1785) Born at Hanau, on the 4th of January 1785. fessor of philosophy and literature at the university of Göttingen. In consequence of the abolition of the constitution

by the present king of Hanover, Grimm vacated his post at Göttingen, and is now professor at the Berlin university. JACOB GRIMM has won immortal renown by his philological and historical researches in the German language. All his works betoken profound erudition, the result of most unwearied industry and perseverance. His work," Ueber den alten Meistergesang," and his " Deutsche Mythologie," are most valuable efforts. His "Deutsche Gramatik," extending to four octavo volumes, is a grammar of a unique kind, and of European celebrity.

WILHELM KARL GRIMM (1786),

The brother of the foregoing, born at Hanau, on the 24th of February 1786., Was librarian at Göttingen; and lives now at Berlin.

To Wilhelm Karl Grimm, also, great praise is due in the department of old German literature. The following are among his most approved works, viz. : "Altdänische Heldenlieder," "Ueber die deutschen Runen," " Deutsche Heldensage." In addition to these, he has edited and commentated works from early German literature.

238

THE PRESENT AGE.

(1820-1843.)

THE assertion, on the part of a native, that the Germans are a great and an original-minded people, cannot fairly be considered the offspring of vanity. The character seems universally accorded to them. Whenever the question is raised, in what degree the writers of Germany possess the advantages of noble aims and aspirations in their studies, whenever we enquire as to the amount of positive knowledge held by them, as compared with the natives of other countries, the Germans confessedly bear off the palm. The learned world concedes to Germany the possession of more sound knowledge on erudite subjects than is to be found elsewhere. This general confidence in their talents is, no doubt, the reason why German classical annotators, in their valuable dissertations and criticisms on the immortal writers of Greece and Rome, have met with so large a measure of success.

Our own times have produced first-rate critics and philologists. To the admirer of classical learning, how familiar are the names of AST, BÆHR, BEKKER, BERGK, ВOCKн, BOTHE, DINDORFF, GOLLER, HERMANN, G. C. HEYNE, KLAUSEN, KREYSIG, ORELLIUS, POPPO, REISKE, RUPERTI, SCHWEIGHAUSER, SPALDING, STALLBAUM, WalTHER, WUNDER,-not to mention the names of other and as great philologists. But besides these eminent commentators on Greek and Roman authors, we have also many excellent and well-known translators of the treasures of ancient literature. Voss has produced an incomparable version of the works of Homer; WIELAND, of those of Horace; while, with a depth of thought and spirituality cognate to his original, SCHLEIERMACHER has transfused the mind of Plato into the forms of the German tongue.

TO KLOTZ we are indebted for a capital translation of Cicero's Orations; while BOTHE effected an equally good one of the tragedies of Euripides; and SOLGER, GRAF STOLBERG, and ВŒскн, of those of Sophocles; and, to close this nomenclature, BŒTTIGER has produced a very good version of Tacitus. We ought also to particularize, as belonging in a degree to this class, the two well-known writers, WILHELM VON HUMBOLDT and K. O. MÜLLER ; as also G. GS. DROYSEN, who has favoured us with a German embodiment of the works of Eschylus and Aristophanes, translated in the genuine spirit of the originals. The acumen with which Droysen appears to have entered into the very soul of Aristophanes, and the aptitude with which he has conveyed, in corresponding German, all the idiomatic Greek phrases, are so extraordinary as to be above all praise. These two achievements may indeed justly be accounted masterpieces. Our author has moreover acquired an European celebrity by his productions, "Geschichte Alexanders des Grossen," and "Geschichte der Nachfolger Alexanders.”

"Classische Alterthumswissenschaft" has been elaborately cultivated in an almost countless succession of works, and wrought out, in every instance, in the most copious manner. We may mention, as the most celebrated authors in this style, K. O. MÜLLER, Wachsmuth, Schöll, F. A. WOLFF, SCHAAF, F. G. WELCKER, F. G. PLASS, G. L. MAURER, F. Schlegel,—writers who have bestowed their energies more particularly on the Greeks; while such men as NIEBUHR, DRUMANN, BERNHARDY, Fr. Creuzer, WACHLER, CON. SCHNEIDER, G. T. Voss, T. G. GRÆSSE, LACHMANN, &c. have devoted themselves to the Romans.

Into all the earliest forms of human speech, the spirit of German inquiry will be found to have deeply entered. In Oriental Literature, we may instance GESENIUS, Bopp, G. W. FREYTAG, ROSENMÜLLER, H. EWALD, A. F. HOFFMANN, HUPFELD, LASSEN, HAMMER-PURGSTALL. The wri

tings of these and other living authors at once point out the progress made in hitherto little known Eastern dialects, and their still more recondite literatures.

As respects grammatical works, Germany again stands proudly preeminent. Her grammarians and lexicographers of the Greek and Roman tongues (as, for example, MATTHIE, THIERSCH, BUTTMANN, ROST, PASSOw, Kühner, and ZUMPT, RAMSHORN, DŒEDERLEIN, SCHNEIDER, Hand, &c.) are most of them familiar to English scholars through the medium of faithful translations. But it is in the department of German grammar itself that the most marvellous works have been created, and the greatest triumphs achieved. The brothers GRIMM, with GRAFF, K. F. BECKER, J. C. A. HEYSE, DIESTERWEG, K. M. RAPP, and others, have laid the foundation of theories at once logical and deeply seated; and by their talents have built up the German language into a sterling and definite greatness. J. GRIMM composed a masterly work on grammar; GRAFF'S pen, on the other hand, was engaged, to the last moment of his life, in drawing up a body of roots in use among the Germanic tribes, very properly denominated “ Sprachschatz." Distinguished in ancient German literature, are VON DER HAGEN, BÜSCHING, G. I. BENECKE, K. LACHMANN, H. F. MASS MANN, J. A. SCHMELLER, W. WACKERNAGEL, M. HAUPT, &c. &c.

To such studies and researches,-aiming, for the most part, at one sole object, viz. the exposition and illustration of the Bible,- -we must now add the band of critical interpreters and spirited inquirers into Holy Writ. In the more popular school of orthodox theology, FR. STRAUSS, THEREMIN, M. T. SCHMALZ, HOFFACKER, WITSCHEL, COUARD, ARNDT, the KRUMMACHERS, STURM, are the principals. The following, on the other hand, incline more to the advocacy of a critical orthodox divinity: NEANDER, OLSHAUSEN, HENGSTENBERG, THOLUCK, NITZSCH, HÄVER

NICK.

The tenour, however, of the profound criticisms and