e, and grew ever paler, till they at last melted away into
vapor."

The richest specimens of Heine's wit are perhaps to be found in the works
which have appeared since the "Reisebilder." The years, if they have
intensified his satirical bitterness, have also given his wit a finer
edge and polish. His sarcasms are so subtly prepared and so slily
allusive, that they may often escape readers whose sense of wit is not
very acute; but for those who delight in the subtle and delicate flavors
of style, there can hardly be any wit more irresistible than Heine's. We
may measure its force by the degree in which it has subdued the German
language to its purposes, and made that language brilliant in spite of a
long hereditary transmission of dulness. As one of the most harmless
examples of his satire, take this on a man who has certainly had his
share of adulation:

"Assuredly it is far from my purpose to depreciate M. Victor Cousin.
The titles of this celebrated philosopher even lay me under an
obligation to praise him. He belongs to that living pantheon of
France which we call the peerage, and his intelligent legs rest on
the velvet benches of the Luxembourg. I must indeed sternly repress
all private feelings which might seduce me into an excessive
enthusiasm. Otherwise I might be suspected of servility; for M.
Cousin is very influential in the State by means of his position and
his tongue. This consideration might even move me to speak of his
faults as frankly as of his virtues. Will he himself disapprove of
this? Assuredly not. I know that we cannot do higher honor to great
minds than when we throw as strong a light on their demerits as on
their merits. When we sing the praises of a Hercules, we must also
mention that he once laid aside the lion's skin and sat down to the
distaff: what then? he remains notwithstanding a Hercules! So when
we relate similar circumstances concerning M. Cousin, we must
nevertheless add, with discriminating eulogy: _M. Cousin_, _if he has
sometimes sat twaddling at the distaff_, _has never laid aside the
lion's skin_. . . . It is true that, having been suspected of
demagogy, he spent some time in a German prison, just as Lafayette
and Richard Coeur de Lion. But that M. Cousin there in his leisure
hours studied Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason' is to be doubted on
three grounds. First, this