the character of a bequest, in relation to that which he has already sent into the world, — and bequests are matters of a sufficiently serious nature.
These fictions belonged, at one time, to my very self — yea, as I may well say, they were myself — and now I resign them once more to the world, and, after this last review, for ever. I have made scarcely any alteration in them, for, even as they are, they have gained the approbation of the reading world ; and, therefore, I repelled that critical fury which sometimes assailed me in my labours, remembering how thereby many a gifted master has injured rather than improved his compositions, while the reader searches with painful anxiety after the earlier features of the much-loved work, and, alas, too often in vain ! What I deemed indispensably to need reforming were chiefly errors arising from former ignorance either in respect of the old northern man- ners or names, or similar matters, of which one previously unversed in such studies could scarcely be aware. So that now I venture, with full confidence, to say to the reader, " Receive, renewed, what has delighted you ; — what has already been dear to you for many years." Conscious, however, of the obligation to render Bome account of the origin and foundation of these various works, I offer to the reading world, and especially to fellow-artists, the following communications : —
UNDINE.
How this darling gift of my muse first arose (1807), from the mystical laboratory of the aged, whimsical Theophrastus Paracelsus [Treatise of Elemental Spirits], has already been alluded to :' here, however, the particulars shall be given more at length. It was not so easy, out of the deeply mysterious natural philosopher, some- times seized with ostentation, and even charlatanery, as also con- tentious pride, but at the same time penetrated and enlightened by ever valid presentiments, and rich in an undeniably genuine expe- rience, in any degree to make any thing, as the saying is. All the less easy was it, inasmuch as his oracles are delivered in a mixture of kitchen, or at best monkish, Latin and indolent provincial dia- lect, similar to the present Tyrolese, so that the like in literature can scarcely any where else be found. Very few treatises, and not
' Tlip reference is to the author's autobiography, which appeared the previous year.
