while in
politics his views have not changed, in theology he has gone back to
belief in a personal divinity. But he denies the report that he has
joined any church. "No," he says, "my religions convictions and views
remain free from all ecclesiasticism; no bell-ring has seduced me, no
altar-candle blinded me. I have played with no symbols, nor altogether
renounced my reason. I have sworn off from nothing, not even my old
heathen gods, from whom I have indeed parted, but in all love and
friendship. It was in May, 1848, the day when I last went out, that I
took leave of the gracious idols I had worshipped in the days of my
happiness. It was with difficulty that I dragged myself to the Louvre,
and I almost fainted as I entered the lofty hall where the blessed
goddess of beauty, our dear Lady of Milo, stands on her pedestal. I lay
long at her feet, and wept so vehemently that a stone must have been
filled with pity. The goddess, too, looked down piteously, as if to say,
'Seest thou not that I have no arms, and cannot help thee?'" It seems
evident from this, that whatever change has happened in Heine's notions,
there is no vital piety in his heart, but he is the same heathen as
ever. The _Romanzero_ is divided into three parts--Histories,
Lamentations, and Hebrew Melodies. The former are like the ballads he
has before published, except that many of them go farther in the way of
indecency, while many others are charming conceits, which are sure of
long popularity. The Lamentations are more expressive of the personal
state of mind and experience of the author. The Hebrew Melodies are the
best of all, and betray a profound affection for the Jewish race and
history, which he vainly seeks to hide with sneering and scoffs, and
which proclaims him a genuine son of Abraham as well as of the
nineteenth century. For the rest, the reader of this book will be
reminded of the sharp saying of Gutzkow about Heine: "He is a writer who
tries to disguise spoiled meat with a _sauce piquante_." Heine has also
published "_Doctor Faust_, a Dance Poem, with curious information about
the Devil, Witches and Poetic Art." This is intended to serve as the
ground-work of a ballet and presents the great problems of existence in
the form of a jest and a paradox. It was written for Lumley, the London
manager, but his ballet-master declared the performance of it
impossible.

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The _Grenzboten_ contains a paper on G