the vehicle for immoral thoughts and
abominable calumnies.[271]

The question of Heine's patriotism has always been a much-debated one,
and must doubtless remain so. But whatever opinion we may hold in regard
to his real attitude and feelings toward the land of his birth, this we
shall have to admit, that there are exceedingly few traces of
Weltschmerz arising from this source. Genuine feeling is expressed in
the two-stanza poem "Ich hatte einst ein schoenes Vaterland"[272] and
also in "Lebensfahrt,"[273] although this latter poem illustrates a
characteristic of so many of his writings, namely that he himself is
their central figure. It is the sublime egoism which characterizes Heine
and all his works. No wonder, then, that one of his few
"Freiheitslieder" refers to his own personal liberty.[274] For the
failings of his countrymen he is ever ready with scathing satire,[275]
he grieves over his separation from them only when he thinks of his
mother;[276] and in regard to the future of Germany he is for the most
part sceptical.[277] In a word, Heine's lyric utterances in regard to
his fatherland are of so mixed a character, that altogether aside from
the question of the sincerity of his feeling toward the land of his
birth, certainly none but the blindest partisan would be able to
discover more than a negligible quantity of Weltschmerz directly
attributable to this influence.

Heine's conscience is at best a doubtful quantity. Where Byron with a
sincere sense and acknowledgment of his guilt writes:

"My injuries came down on those who loved me--
On those whom I best loved: . . . . . .
But my embrace was fatal."[278]

Heine sees it in quite another light: "War ich doch selber jetzt das
lebende Gesetz der Moral und der Quell alles Rechtes und aller Befugnis;
die anruechigsten Magdalenen wurden purifiziert durch die laeuternde und
suehnende Macht meiner Liebesflammen,"[279] a moral aberration which he
attributes to an imperfect interpretation of the difficult philosophy of
Hegel. If further evidence were necessary to show the perversity of
Heine's moral sense, the following paragraph from a letter to Varnhagen
would suffice, in its way perhaps as remarkable a contribution to the
theory of ethics as has ever been penned: "In Deutschland ist man noch
nicht so weit, zu begreifen, dass ein Mann, der das Edelste durch Wort
und That befoerdern will, sich oft einige kleine Lumpigkeiten, sei es aus
Spass oder aus V