phal but[1], and by translations of several short pieces[2], Mr. Thomas Carlyle brought the English public acquainted with the name of Jean Paul Friedrich Richter, and gave them some little "taste of his quality." He was followed by Kenney, from whose pen appeared at Dresden, 1839, a translation of "The Death of an Angel," and of a large number of short pieces, selected from the works of Jean Paul, together with "A Sketch of his Life and Character;" and now we have before us from an American pen, in an English reprint[3], a " Life of Jean Paul," in two volumes, followed by a translation of his Flegeljahre, from the same pen; and furthermore a translation of Siebenkäs, from the pen of Mr. Noel. As we shall find opportunities of dropping an obiter dictum on the merits of these productions, we shall not detain our readers by criticisms upon the copies from that further and fuller acquaintance with the originals to which we shall endeavour, as far as is possible within our limits, to introduce them. Neither do we propose to enter into any details respecting the life of
- ↑ Jean Paul Friedrich Richter's Leben, nebst Characteristic seiner Werke, von Heinrich Döring, Gotha, 1826. Of this production Mr. Carlyle gave an account in No. XCI. of the Edinburgh Review; reprinted in the first volume of his Miscellanies. Döring himself published, in 1830, a second and enlarged, but scarcely improved edition of this biographical compilation, against which Jean Paul's widow cautioned the public by advertisement.
- ↑ A translation of Jean Paul's Review of Madame de Staël's Germany, was given by Mr. Carlyle in Nos. I. and IV. of Frasier's Magazine, and is reprinted in the second volume of his Critical and Miscellaneous Essays; and the third volume of his "German Romances" contains a translation of "Army-Chaplain Schmelzle's Journey to Flätz," and of the "Life of Quintus Fixlein."
- ↑ The English reprint forms part of "The Catholic Series," the object of which, we are told, is to "realize the idea of Catholicism in spirit." For this purpose, inter alia, an "Ideal Head " is placed on the title-page of each number, which, in our simplicity, we were on the point of mistaking for a bad likeness of Jean Paul, when our eye was caught. by the announcement that it is "taken, with considerable modification, from De la Roche's picture of Christ." As a specimen of the extent to which the galimatias of infidelity is carried, even in England, we transcribe the following explanatory remarks on this "Ideal Head:"—"An attempt was previously made to symbolize the idea of spiritual Self-reliance and Progression, but nothing was produced that we deemed adequately expressive, or applicable, as a characteristic of the series; hence, the present engraving was adopted, not specially because it was intended by the artist to express the idea of Jesus Christ, (for that must always be imaginary.) but as an embodiment of the highest ideal humanity, and thus of a likeness of Jesus Christ, as its highest historical realization. In prefixing this engraving to each a number of Catholic Series, it is intended—by the absence of passion—by the profound intellectual power—the beneficent and loveful nature, and the serene and spiritual beauty therein portrayed—to awaken in the beholder a self-consciousness of the like qualities in a greater or less degree; and to imply the necessity of aspiration in progress, in order to unfold and realize the nature which the artist has essayed to express in this ideal image; and as a contributory means to this and the Catholic Series is issued." If the whorl should last long enough for a future antiquary to collect specimens of the different genera and species of Catholicity, which have been spawned by the 19th century, the collection will, we fancy, turn out something exceedingly rare and curious.
