The lecturer here flies his agnostic colors from beginning
to end. He treats "The Romantic School in Germany" as Voltaire treated
Rousseau--with sovereign wit, superior intelligence, but scant sympathy.
At the same time he penetrates to the fountains of life which infused
strength into the movement. He accounts for romanticism as the chairman
of a committee _de lunatico inquirendo_ might account for a case of
religious mania.
The second and third courses of lectures (printed, like the first, and
translated into German by Strodtmann) dealt with "The Literature of the
French Emigres" and "The Reaction in France." Here the critic is less
unsympathetic, not because he regards the mental attitude of the
fugitives from the Revolution with approbation, but because he has an
intellectual bias in favor of everything French. Besides having a
certain constitutional sympathy with the clearness and vigor of style
and thought which distinguish the French, Dr. Brandes is so largely
indebted to French science, philosophy, and art that it would be strange
if he did not betray an occasional _soupcon_ of partisanship.
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