way as a poet and man of science. He had little sympathy with the
national uprising against Napoleon, whom he looked on as the
invincible subduer of the hated Revolution. From the point of view of
our modern nationalism, which was just then entering on its
world-transforming career, his conduct was unpatriotic. But let him at
least be rightly understood. It was not that he lacked sympathy for
the German people, but he misjudged and underestimated the new forces
that were coming into play. As the son of an earlier age he could only
conceive a people's welfare as the gift of a wise ruler. He thought of
politics as the affair of the great. He hated war and all eruptive
violence, being convinced that good would come, not by such means, but
by enlightenment, self-control and attending to one's work in one's
sphere. To the historian Luden he said in 1813:

"Do not believe that I am indifferent to the great ideas of freedom,
people, fatherland. No! These ideas are in us, they are a part of our
being, and no one can cast them from him. I too have a warm heart for
Germany. I have often felt bitter pain in thinking of the German
people, so worthy of respect in some ways, so miserable on the whole.
A comparison of the German people with other peoples arouses painful
emotions which I try in every way to surmount; and in science and art
I have found the wings whereby I rise above them. But the comfort
which these afford is after all a poor comfort that does not
compensate for the proud consciousness of belonging to a great and
strong people that is honored and feared."

In 1808 he published _The Elective Affinities_, a novel in which the
tragic effects of lawless passion invading the marriage relation were
set forth with telling art. Soon after this he began to write a memoir
of his life. He was now a European celebrity, the dream of his youth