aim at judging and
deciding.

Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller was a native of Marbach, a small
town of Wuertemberg, situated on the banks of the Neckar. He was born
on the 10th of November 1759,--a few months later than our own Robert
Burns. Schiller's early culture was favoured by the dispositions, but
obstructed by the outward circumstances of his parents. Though removed
above the pressure of poverty, their station was dependent and
fluctuating; it involved a frequent change of place and plan. Johann
Caspar Schiller, the father, had been a surgeon in the Bavarian army;
he served in the Netherlands during the Succession War. After his
return home to Wuertemberg, he laid aside the medical profession,
having obtained a commission of ensign and adjutant under his native
Prince. This post he held successively in two regiments; he had
changed into the second, and was absent on active duty when Friedrich
was born. The Peace of Paris put an end to his military employment;
but Caspar had shown himself an intelligent, unassuming and useful
man, and the Duke of Wuertemberg was willing to retain him in his
service. The laying-out of various nurseries and plantations in the
pleasure-grounds of Ludwigsburg and Solitude was intrusted to the
retired soldier, now advanced to the rank of captain: he removed from
one establishment to another, from time to time; and continued in the
Duke's pay till death. In his latter years he resided chiefly at
Ludwigsburg.

This mode of life was not the most propitious for educating such a boy
as Friedrich; but the native worth of his parents did more than
compensate for the disadvantages of their worldly condition and their
limited acquirements in knowledge. The benevolence, the modest and
prudent integrity, the true devoutness of these good people shone
forth at an after period, expanded and beautified in the character of
their son; his heart was nourished by a constant exposure to such
influences, and thus the better part of his education prospered well.
The mother was a woman of many household virtues; to a warm affection
for her children and husband, she joined a degree of taste and
intelligence which is of much rarer occurrence. She is said to have
been a lover of poetry; in particular an admiring reader of Utz and
Gellert, writers whom it is creditable for one in her situation to
have relished.[1] Her kindness and tenderness of heart peculiarly
endeared her to Friedrich. Her husband a