:
but as years were added to his age, the delights of peace and
continuous comfort were fast becoming more acceptable than any other;
and he looked with anxiety to have a resting-place amid his
wanderings, to be a man among his fellow-men.

For all these wishes, Schiller saw that the only chance of fulfilment
depended on unwearied perseverance in his literary occupations. Yet
though his activity was unabated, and the calls on it were increasing
rather than diminished, its direction was gradually changing. The
Drama had long been stationary, and of late been falling in his
estimation: the difficulties of the art, as he viewed it at present,
had been overcome, and new conquests invited him in other quarters.
The latter part of _Carlos_ he had written as a task rather than a
pleasure; he contemplated no farther undertaking connected with the
Stage. For a time, indeed, he seems to have wavered among a
multiplicity of enterprises; now solicited to this, and now to that,
without being able to fix decidedly on any. The restless ardour of his
mind is evinced by the number and variety of his attempts; its
fluctuation by the circumstance that all of them are either short in
extent, or left in the state of fragments. Of the former kind are his
lyrical productions, many of which were composed about this period,
during intervals from more serious labours. The character of these
performances is such as his former writings gave us reason to expect.
With a deep insight into life, and a keen and comprehensive sympathy
with its sorrows and enjoyments, there is combined that impetuosity of
feeling, that pomp of thought and imagery which belong peculiarly to
Schiller. If he had now left the Drama, it was clear that his mind was
still overflowing with the elements of poetry; dwelling among the
grandest conceptions, and the boldest or finest emotions; thinking
intensely and profoundly, but decorating its thoughts with those
graces, which other faculties than the understanding are required to
afford them. With these smaller pieces, Schiller occupied himself at
intervals of leisure throughout the remainder of his life. Some of
them are to be classed among the most finished efforts of his genius.
The _Walk_, the _Song of the Bell_, contain exquisite delineations of
the fortunes and history of man; his _Ritter Toggenburg_, his _Cranes
of Ibycus_, his _Hero and Leander_, are among the most poetical and
moving ballads to be found in any language.