SOURCE OF YOUTH. Thou soarest, above all human chains. BELIEVE me, the fountain of youth is not an idle Whatever thou givest, thou givest thyself entire, fable; Even a whisper reveals thy harmony's soul-stir ring play; It is a perennial spring that runs in poesy's art. A spring perennial and clear, thy youth flows in beautiful fullness, If the flower thou gatherest, thou reapest the golden fruit. THE CONNECTING MEDIUM. WHAT to cement the lofty and the mean Does Nature ?-what?-place vanity between! We have ventured to borrow these two translations from Coleridge's poems, not only because what Coleridge did well, no living man could have the presumptuous hope to improve, but because they adhere to the original metre, which Germany has received from Greece, and show, we venture to think, that not even Coleridge could have made that metre agreeable to the English ear and taste in poems of any length, nor even in small poems if often repeated. It is, however, in their own language, the grandest which the Germans possess, and has been used by Schiller with signal success in his "Walk," and other poems. VOL. I.-10. THE SUBLIME THEME. [Also on Lavater, and alluding to the "Jesus Messias, oder die Evangelien und Apostelgeschichte in Gesängen, &c."] How God compassionates mankind, thy muse, my friend, rehearses For years I have smelled, and do still smell with Compassion for the sins of man!-What comfort my nose; for thy verses! IN Germany things are much worse, worse both in prose and in verse, The golden age flees away, and with it its priceless joys. Philosophers spoil our language, and poets our logic, Common sense is no passport through life as it formerly was. From æsthetics, its province, virtue seems banished forever, A political science it is, this troublesome guest. Which way do we wander? If natural, we are called vulgar; If modest, alas! we are said to be silly, absurd. Delight us again with thy sparkling good-natured wit; Return, O Comedy! thou, and thou, oh, weekly visit, Sweet lover, Siegmond, come back, with Masc'ril, the valet's rich fun, Thy spirit is seen rushing mightily over the boards. And dramas, replete with sharp points, with epi- « All well! philosophy chastens your method of grammatical pins, And menuet, and borrowed equipments of stage and of dress! feeling, "How do you exhibit great fate, in its gigantic proportions, Which exterminates man while it raises his worth ?" We know not such whims; we meet here ourselves, an acquaintance; |