and
the Christian are represented but as stages in our progress to the
pinnacle of true human grandeur; and man, isolated on this fragment of
the universe, encompassed with the boundless desolate Unknown, at war
with Fate, without help or the hope of help, is confidently called
upon to rise into a calm cloudless height of internal activity and
peace, and _be_, what he has fondly named himself, the god of this
lower world. When such are the results, who would not make an effort
for the steps by which they are attained? In Schiller's treatises, it
must be owned, the reader, after all exertions, will be fortunate if
he can find them. Yet a second perusal will satisfy him better than
the first; and among the shapeless immensities which fill the Night of
Kantism, and the meteoric coruscations, which perplex him rather than
enlighten, he will fancy he descries some streaks of a serener
radiance, which he will pray devoutly that time may purify and ripen
into perfect day. The Philosophy of Kant is probably combined with
errors to its very core; but perhaps also, this ponderous unmanageable
dross may bear in it the everlasting gold of truth! Mighty spirits
have already laboured in refining it: is it wise in us to take up with
the base pewter of Utility, and renounce such projects altogether? We
trust, not.[28]

[Footnote 28: Are our hopes from Mr. Coleridge always to be
fruitless? Sneers at the common-sense philosophy of the
Scotch are of little use: it is a poor philosophy, perhaps;
but not so poor as none at all, which seems to be the state
of matters here at present.]

That Schiller's _genius_ profited by this laborious and ardent study
of AEsthetic Metaphysics, has frequently been doubted, and sometimes
denied. That, after such investigations, the process of composition
would become more difficult, might be inferred from the nature of the
case. That also the principles of this critical theory were in part
erroneous, in still greater part too far-fetched and fine-spun for
application to the business of writing, we may farther venture to
assert. But excellence, not ease of composition, is the thing to be
desired; and in a mind like Schiller's, so full of energy, of images
and thoughts and creative power, the more sedulous practice of
selection was little likely to be detrimental. And though considerable
errors might mingle with the rules by which he judged himself, the
habit of judging carelessly, or n