at least securely embarked ere it were intrusted to the perilous waters.
From the operation of the same causes which have produced these effects even on the more serious and elaborate departments of the Teutonic literature, the department of professedly fugitive productions has been rendered peculiarly rich in quantity, and highly respetable in merit. It is from this department that most of the Tales which which compose the present volumes have been chiefly selected; and we venture to believe that in most cases they will be found decidedly above the average value of those productions of a similar kind to which the public taste has been of late so much familiarised, and to which it has shown itself so uniformly indulgent.
The following Tales taken collectively may serve as a very fair illustration of the former of the two qualities which we have mentioned as characteristic of German fugitive literature,—its high respectability in regard to quality, and extraordinary copiousness in respect of quantity. Of the latter we can give no other illustration than to say, that out of the stores which it contains it were easy to continue such volumes such volumes as the present. And that should this specimen prove acceptable to the public, it must be something else than lack of materials that will prevent the repetition of the offering.
