Page:Flower, fruit and thorn pieces - Noel translation.djvu/90

 74 other, and may there not be a better juste milieu than either?

As the charge of being visionary, however well founded in some instances, is not the fault likely to be urged against Richter, it need not now be entered upon: but we know that the theoretical element is as necessary to the true practical as the mechanical or material; and many are the useful inventions we owe, in part at least, to German speculation. With respect to the more serious charge of irreligion, in as far as it concerns our author, the reader should judge less by detached expressions and free modes of speech, than by the pervading spirit and tendency of his writings as a whole. We shall know whether or not an author is religious by his fruits; and his whole work is the matured fruit of his mind: a detached saying is but a leaf, a blossom, or a portion of the rind, which in the sweetest fruits is often bitter.

Judged in this way, therefore, Jean Paul will be found in his works, as he was in life and practice, eminently religious; but his is a religion which would embrace all creeds and all sects. He is the preacher of immortality,—of a loftier, more liberal humanity!

Besides these more serious charges affecting German literature in general, there are many other minor peculiarities of this author, which, condemned as faults, are urged as a reason why extracts from his compositions would be a more acceptable offering to the English public than any translation of a whole work. These may be summed up as follows:—a forced introduction and elaboration of irrelevant matter; as already mentioned, a great want of simplicity; and, lastly, a very