phic cast, are often
full of nature, heartiness and true simplicity. 'From his youth
upwards,' we are told, 'he studied the true Old-German _Volkslied_; he
watched the artisan on the street, the craftsman in his workshop, the
soldier in his guardhouse, the maid by the spinning-wheel; and
transferred the genuine spirit of primeval Germanism, which he found
in them, to his own songs.' Hence their popularity, which many of them
still retain. 'In his larger lyrical pieces,' observes the same not
injudicious critic, 'we discover fearless singularity; wild
imagination, dwelling rather on the grand and frightful than on the
beautiful and soft; deep, but seldom long-continued feeling; at times
far-darting thoughts, original images, stormy vehemence; and generally
a glowing, self-created, figurative diction. He never wrote to show
his art; but poured forth, from the inward call of his nature, the
thought or feeling which happened for the hour to have dominion in
him.'[68]

[Footnote 68: _Joerdens Lexicon_: from which most part of the
above details are taken.--There exists now a decidedly
compact, intelligent and intelligible _Life of Schubart_,
done, in three little volumes, by Strauss, some years ago.
(_Note of_ 1857.)]

Such were Schubart and his works and fortunes; the _disjecta membra_
of a richly-gifted but ill-starred and infatuated poet! The image of
his persecutions added speed to Schiller's flight from Stuttgard; may
the image of his wasted talents and ineffectual life add strength to
our resolves of living otherwise!

LETTERS OF SCHILLER.

A few Extracts from Schiller's correspondence may be gratifying to
some readers. The _Letters to Dalberg_, which constitute the chief
part of it as yet before the public, are on the whole less interesting
than might have been expected, if we did not recollect that the writer
of them was still an inexperienced youth, overawed by his idea of
Dalberg, to whom he could communicate with freedom only on a single
topic; and besides oppressed with grievances, which of themselves
would have weighed down his spirit, and prevented any frank or cordial
exposition of its feelings.

Of the Reichsfreiherr von Dalberg himself, this correspondence gives
us little information, and we have gleaned little elsewhere. He is
mentioned incidentally in almost every literary history connected with
his time; and generally as a mild gentlemanly person,