-fever has seized all the young
people, and silly sentimentalities and flirtations have become the
fashion. These modern Werthers behave as if love were a tarantula, with
the bite of which they must become mad, to be considered model young
men. They groan and sigh, take moonlight walks, but they have no courage
in their souls, and will never make good soldiers. This is the fault of
Herr Werther, and his abominable lamentations. It is a miserable work,
and not worth the trouble of talking about, for no earnest man will read
it!"

"Pardon me, sire; your majesty has graciously permitted me to enter
the lists as knight and champion of German literature, and sometimes
to defend the German Muse, who stands unnoticed and unknown under the
shadow of your throne; while the French lady, with her brilliant attire
and painted cheeks, is always welcomed. I beg your majesty to believe
that, although this romance may have done some harm, it has, on the
other hand, done infinite service. A great and immortal merit cannot be
denied to it."

"What merit?" demanded the king, slowly taking a pinch of snuff; "I am
very curious to know what merit that crazy, love-sick book has."

"Sire, it has the great merit to have enriched the German literature
with a work whose masterly language alone raises it above every thing
heretofore produced by a German author. It has emancipated our country's
literature from its clumsy, awkward childhood, and presented it as an
ardent, inspired youth, ready for combat, upon the lips of whom the gods
have placed the right word to express every feeling and every thought--a
youth who is capable of probing the depths of the human heart."

"I wish all this might have remained in the depths," cried Frederick,
annoyed. "You have defended the German Muse before; but you remember
that I am incorrigible. You cannot persuade me that bungling is
master-work. It is not the poverty of the mind, but the fault of the
language, which is not capable of expressing with brevity and precision.
For how could any one translate Tacitus into German without adding
a mass of words and phrases? In French it is not necessary; one can
express himself with brevity, and to the point."

"Sire, I shall permit myself to prove to you that the brevity of Tacitus
can be imitated in the German language. I will translate a part of
Tacitus, to give your majesty a proof."

"I will take you at your word! And I will answer you in a treatise upon
Ger