Flower, Fruit, and Thorn Pieces/Volume 1/Biographical Sketch of Jean Paul Friedrich Richter

by Thomas Carlyle

 

Biographical Sketch

of

Jean Paul Friedrich Richter,

By THOMAS CARLYLE.

 

 

Biographical Sketch.

 

ichter was born at Wonsiedel in Baireuth, in the year 1763; and as his birthday fell on the 21st of March, it was sometimes wittily said that he and the Spring were born together. He himself mentions this, and with a laudable intention: "This epigrammatic fact," says he, "that I the Professor and the Spring came into the world together, I have indeed brought out a hundred times in conversation, before now; but I fire it off here purposely, like a cannon-salute, for the hundred and first time, that so by printing I may ever henceforth be unable to offer it again as bonmot-bonbon, when, through the Printer's Devil, it has already been presented to all the world." Destiny, he seems to think, made another witticism on him; the word Richter being appellative as well as proper, in the German tongue, where it signifies Judge. His Christian name, Jean Paul, which Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/20 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/21 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/22 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/23 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/24 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/25 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/26 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/27 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/28 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/29 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/30 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/31 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/32 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/33 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/34 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/35 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/36 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/37 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/38 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/39 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/40 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/41 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/42 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/43 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/44 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/45 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/46 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/47 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/48 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/49 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/50 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/51 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/52 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/53 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/54 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/55 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/56 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/57 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/58 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/59 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/60 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/61 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/62 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/63 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/64 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/65 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/66 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/67 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/68 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/69 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/70 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/71 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/72 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/73 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/74 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/75 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/76 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/77 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/78 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/79 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/80 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/81 Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/82 not uninspired heart, strove to represent it in the Visible, and published tidings of it to his fellow-men. ^• This one virtue, the foundation of all other virtues, and which a long study more and more clearly reveals to us in Jean Paul, will cover far greater sins than his were. It raises him into quite another sphere than that of the thousand elegant sweet-singers, and cause-and-effect philosophers, in his own country, or in this; the million Novel-manufacturers, Sketchers, practical Discoursers, and so forth, not once reckoned in. Such a man we can safely recommend to universal study; and for those who, in the actual state of matters, may the most blame him, repeat the old maxim: "What is extraordinary, try to look at with your own eyes."