chair as president--an
extempore Latin gratulatory oration, so impassioned, that not only he
himself, but also most of his hearers, wept. Again, at home he sat down
and wept over his fate, and his truehearted comrade wept with him
almost the whole afternoon. That he should shed tears at his departure
was natural, but he still wept when in the course of his long journey
he arrived at Merseburg; and when, on reaching home, he gave the
laudatory letter of Baumgarten to his father, the latter wept also for
joy.

In this case the emotion was justifiable, and tears flowed from
the heart; but it could not fail to happen that the habit of
self-consciousness, and of watching each inward emotion, degenerated
into acting a part, and admiration of noble affections, into
affectation.

This soon showed itself in the German language. The higher emotions
still found no adequate expression. The language of books still
dominated, and all the nobler feelings of men had to adapt themselves
to its forms and periods. Just at that time however this language had
gained a certain degree of aptitude in expressing clearly and simply
the calm, methodic work of the reflecting mind; but when passionate
feelings sought expression in words, they were still restrained within
the threadbare forms of the ancient rhetoric, and nestled in the dry
leaves of old phrases. The Pietists had to invent a phraseology of
their own for their peculiar feelings, and these expressions soon
degenerated into mannerism. It was the same case with those new turns
of expression by which highly-gifted individuals sought to enrich the
language of the heart. If a poet spoke of feeling the soft tremor of a
friendly kiss, hundreds imitated him, delighted with the high-flown
expression. Thus, also, tears of sorrow and of gratitude, and the
sweets of friendship, became stereotyped phrases, which at last had
little meaning in them.

And this poverty of language became general. Almost everywhere, when we
expect the simple expression of an inward feeling, we find a display of
reflections which is as repulsive in letters and speeches, as in poems.
This speciality of the old time becomes insupportable to us, and we
readily accuse it of hypocrisy, callousness, and hollowness. But our
ancestors have a sufficient excuse. They could not do otherwise. Still
did there remain in their souls somewhat of the epic constraint of the
middle ages, the yearning for an outpouring of greater passio