German Literature (Volume 1) (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1840. Excerpt: ... a small romance, but take absolutely no notice of great political life, of the history of the world, of the disgrace and glory of nations. But can a people sink lower than to have within itself so considerable a public, which is thoroughly effeminate and childish, and either fears, or never once happens to speak of any thing that elevates the soul of man 1 In this sense, I believe perfectly, that the freedom of the press is entirely indispensable to our intellectual emancipation. This alone is able, by permitting the more manly minds to express themselves freely, to put to silence those women, children, and eunuchs, and raise German literature from the slough in which it is at present sunk. For the rest, all minds do not allow themselves to be unmanned. The censorship, even when it is coupled with the greatest tyranny, cannot prevent the deep-drawn breath of life -- intellectual respiration. If the beak of a bird is bound up fast, and his wings broken, he can still live and breathe through the hollow bones. The truth is not lost, though not to be encountered in every street. It takes root deeper in the spirit, the less it can be communicated and uttered aloud. A nation on whom restraints of the press are laid, is commonly cultivated enough to have the power of thinking what it may not say. It is certain that new severities of restraint upon the press, new mental interdicts, if introduced, are of as little use as the former. There is only one form of incantation which controls spirits. Its name is Freedom and Right He who forgets this form may bind spirits with cords and steel; he binds not: he may bury them alive, and sprinkle lime over them, year after year; of a sudden the spirits again are roaming free above the grave, and laugh him to scorn. But, it often happens, that, in the ...