Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/131

 Weigand 125 "of an extraordinary nature and rises magnificently above the common doings of men?" Why should he, when his folly "puts him on a level with the stars? " No mere philosopher is so highly placed. No merely rational man surveys the world from such a lofty altitude. In lamenting his lack of reason, Heine boasts of a folly that is superrational. Could there be any need of interpreting this folly? Scarcely, if we remember Tieck's and Hoffmann's glorying in their 'Narr- heit. ' The folly Heine boasts of is his poetic vision which compre- hends the whole universe in all its sublime as well as ridiculous aspects. While the philosopher is stationed at the center of the revolving cosmic sphere and contemplates the multitude of passing phenomena from a point of rest, Heine, the poet, the enthusiast, feels the throb of its rhythmic movement at the periphery, and rounds the whole cycle of life, is lifted to its sublimest heights and descends in turn to the lowest depths of animal being. An inex- haustible wealth of unique imaginative experience is open to him ; such as is forever closed to the philosopher's merely logical com- prehension of the typical and eternal. Thus, in Heine's dialectical play, Folly suddenly pauses to contemplate her own image and she beholds herself: a wisdom that passeth all understanding. A brief review of Heine's fluctuating attitude toward Hegelian- ism in the years to follow will serve to confirm our interpretation. In the fall of 1827 Heine went to Munich to assume the editor- ship of the 'Political Annals.' During this time he lost touch, more or less, with his Berlin friends and the Hegelian point of view. Impressionable as he was, he succumbed in Munich for a time to the influence of Wolfgang Menzel, the South German literary dictator. Menzel's book on German literature had just appeared. Heine reviewed this work, and it made an impression on his mind which lasted even after his attitude toward Menzel had become one of bitter hostility. In this work Menzel lavishes the highest praise on Schelling, the mystic, at the expense of Hegel, the logician, who drops to the rank of a mere pupil of Schelling. 10 In his review Heine expresses himself as in full accord with the author's views on Schelling. This time, for a change, he comes to the rescue of 'Mysticism,' of exalted emotionalism which he no longer associates with pietism. Christ and Luther he now regards "Menzel: Die deutsche Literatur, 2d. ed. 1836, vol. I, 280 ff., 314 ff.