Dorothea." This style of poetry was so easy that hundreds of
weak-headed men and women made it their occupation, and family scenes
and plays speedily surpassed the romances of chivalry in number. The
poet, nevertheless, exercised no less an influence, notwithstanding
his voluntary renunciation of his privilege to elevate the sinking
minds of his countrymen by the great memories of the past or by ideal
images, and his degradation of poetry to a mere palliation of the
weaknesses of humanity.


[Footnote 1: He was a friend of Grotius and is styled the father of
German poetry.--_Trans_.]

[Footnote 2: Of which an edition, much esteemed, was published by
Lessing and Ramler.]

[Footnote 3: Adam Elschlager or Olearius, an eminent traveller and
mathematician, a native of Anhalt. He became secretary to an embassy
sent to Russia and Persia by the duke of Holstein.--_Trans_.]



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PART XXII

THE GREAT WARS WITH FRANCE

CCXLVI. The French Revolution