nst quench these passions evermore the stronger?
Then ask not virtue, what I must deny.

"'Albeit I have sworn, yea, sworn that never
Shall yield my master will;
Yet take thy wreath; to me 'tis lost for ever!
Take back thy wreath, and let me sin my fill.'

"Is this a noble and exalted way of thinking? Certainly not. Schiller
would be virtuous if he could clothe himself in the lustre of virtue
without sacrifice. The passionate impulses of the heart are stronger in
him than the sense of duty. He gives way to his passions. He renounces
virtue because he is too weak, too languid, too listless to encounter
this giant strife bravely like a strong man. Such is the noble
Schiller. In later years, when the fiery impulses of his heart had
subsided, he roused himself to better efforts and nobler aims.

"Consider the prince of poets, Goethe. How morally naked and poor he
stands before us! Goethe's coarse insults to morality are well known.
His better friend, Schiller, wrote of him to Koerner, 'His mind is not
calm enough, because his domestic relations, which he is too weak to
change, cause him great vexation.' Koerner answered, 'Men cannot
violate morality with impunity.' Six years later, the 'noble' Goethe
was married to his 'mistress' at Weimar. Goethe's detestable political
principles are well known. He did not possess a spark of patriotism. He
composed hymns of victory to Napoleon, the tyrant, the destroyer and
desolator of Germany. These are the heroes of modern sentiment, the
advance guard of liberty, morality, and true manhood! And these heroes
so far succeeded that the noble Arndt wrote of his time, 'We are base,
cowardly, and stupid; too poor for love, too listless for anger, too
imbecile for hate. Undertaking everything, accomplishing nothing;
willing every thing, without the power of doing any thing.' So far has
this boasted freethinking created disrespect for revealed truth. So far
this modern civilization, which idealizes the passions, leads to
mockery of religion and lets loose the baser passions of man. If they
cast these representatives of the times in bronze, they should stamp on
the foreheads of their statues the words of Arndt:

"'We are base, cowardly, and stupid; too poor for love, too listless
for anger, too imbecile for hate. Undertaking every thing,
accomplishing nothing; willing every thing, without the power of doing
any thing.'"

"You