Page:Stories Translated from the German.djvu/199

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at some time or another invisibly bewitch him, let it be in the shape of stupidity or of excessive wit, or of confusion, or of superstition, or of an inconceivable ignorance. No dictator in the state or in science is for ever exempted from this ridiculous tribute. For example, our Göthe."

I will not presume either to criticise or ridicule him here, in which of his works he may have been weak or artless, in which book he may have yielded too much to the momentary whim, for upon this subject we shall hereafter learn much, and frequently have to dispute; but I will merely cite a little piece of his ignorance, which, however, in the end is really not so very trifling. We know how often he has praised Byron, and he must have studied him and read him with enthusiasm.

In the fifth number of "Art and Antiquity," he translates the monologue in the second act of Manfred, and immediately in the second verse he says—

"Wir leben
In Lebens-Ueberdrusz, in Scheu des Todes.
In all den Tagen der verwünschten Posse
Lebendige Last auf widerstrebendem Herzen, u.s.w."

But in English it is—

"In all the days of this detested yoke," &c.