ence little of its effects, it was easy to perceive that the
animation could not all be accounted for by love to the memory even of
Schiller. Poems were read, and speeches were made describing his
character as poet, historian, or otherwise, according to the fancy of
each speaker. I remember one from Bodenstedt, than whom few stand higher
in the walks of polite literature, and one from Sybel, than whom no one
in Germany ranks higher as a historian. Dr. Neumann, who, like an old
parade horse long withrawn from the excitements of a parade, felt amid
these scenes the spirit of former days stirred within him, rose to
speak. We shall be prepared to appreciate the effect when we get an idea
of the preternatural sensitiveness of those who composed the audience. A
well-known poet, who may perhaps be called the poet-laureate of Bavaria,
had read a poem on the occasion. It contained nothing to which any one
could object, as we might infer from his position with the king, and yet
I heard the poet himself say a few days afterward that the editors of a
certain well-known journal, in publishing it, left out the stanzas
containing the word _Freiheit_ (liberty), so fearful were they of not
pitching their tune to a key that would suit royal and Government ears.
A similar sensitiveness pervaded the whole body present--nearly all drew
their bread and beer from the Government, and did not wish it stopped or
diminished. This class had gotten up the meeting, and hoped to control
it. When they saw Dr. Neumann rise, they felt that _there_ was a man
_naturally_ fearless, and _now_ quite beyond that special sense of
danger which made them cautious. Recollection passed over his seven
years' silence, and called up the power with which he had harangued in
other years. Nor was it so much what he said as the man who said it,
which produced the effect, and yet there was much in the speech. He said
that Schiller had been eulogized as a social and domestic man, poet, and
historian; but nothing had been said of him as a _politician_, and he
should speak of him in this character. The _rising_ of _such_ a man was
an electric shock, suggestive of that which in 1848 made all Europe
tremble from centre to circumference. The word _politician_ was a
_second_ shock, drawing with it suggestively all the concomitants of
that revolution, as yet so well remembered by all. And when he proceeded
to compare Schiller with Goethe--the _former_ frankly addressing himself
to
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