Page:The reflections of Lichtenberg.djvu/113

 glistened, and will be forgotten.We may be wonderfully satisfied with what we have done, and yet have the expert smiling at our efforts. In the republic of letters there are men who without the least genuine ability attract very great attention ; few look into their merits, and those who see through them would be regarded as blasphemers if they openly expressed their opinion. The reason of this is that the truly great man has qualities which only the great can appreciate; while his counterfeit has such as suit the mass of the people, who thereupon out-vote the sensible few.

Nothing is more desirable than that Germany should have first-class historians; they alone can make foreigners take more interest in us. But they mustn’t be mere chroniclers, or else they mustn’t let the trouble which they have taken in the work appear; they must have self-denial enough to put a month’s research into a single line, and with so little parade that hardly one among thousands will consider it so valuable. It will nevertheless assuredly be discovered, if not at once, then in thousands of years. Regard must constantly be had to the history of the people and the spirit of their laws, yet not with any show, nor consequently in any phrase-making, and still less in any epigrammatic style. Plain writing is the sort most likely to go down to posterity, if the matter is good. On this account I would recommend the historianat least, in the reflective portions to err on the side of brevity; if posterity becomes