lishment in 1870 of an united German empire, could rc- coucile him to a dynasty one sickly scion of which had foiled the national aspirations of Germany. Gervinus now t0ok refuge among his literary and historical studies, more especially devoting himself to the study of Shakespeare, the result of which was his great work Shakespeare (184-9, 1850), in four Volumes. He also revised his magnum opus, the IIz'story of German Literature, for a fourth edition (1853), and began at the same time to plan his 11 [story of the 19th. Century, which was to be a continuation of the History (3f the 18th Century by his guide and teacher, Schlosser. lIe heralded that voluminous work by a pro- gramme or manifesto entitled Einleituny in die Geschichte (les neunzehnten Jahrhuntlerts, which was issued in 1853, and made a great stir in the literary and political world, chiefly owing to the circumstance that the Government of Biden imprudently instituted a prosecution against the author for high treason. Gervinus had prophesied in his famous pamphlet the final victory of democracy, and based his prediction on the theory that all the great revolutionary outbreaks follow each other in a kind of geometrical pro- gression,—to wit, 1820, 1830, and 1848. Hence he con- cluded that the next great revolutionary shock would take place about 1888-1890, and that it would insure the final victory to democracy, just as the same decade brought in former centuries freedom and independence to the Ameri- cans, the French, the English, and the inhabitants of the Netherlands. Arraigned before a tribunal, he defended himself with a great display of ability and manly courage, but was nevertheless condemned to an imprisonment of two months, and all the copies of the “ seditious publication ” were to be destroyed. Fortunately for Germany, this dis— grace was spared her, the verdict having been rescinded by a higher tribunal. This occurrence, which would have aroused a more elastic temper to greater political activity, had the contrary effect upon the sensitive mind of Gervinus. IIe buried himself still more among his books, and even forebore to deliver lectures. With unwearied energy he now devoted himself to his above-mentioned great his— torical work, Gesehz'ehte des neunzehnten Jalu‘h-u-nderts seit (Zen lf’z'ener l'ertrdiqen, which he issued in eight volumes, the first in 1855 and the last in 1866. In the midst of his historical studies he found relief in his devotion to the works of his favourite musician Handel. He founded, and liberally supported, the Handel Society in Germany, whose object it was to restore the com- positions of the great master in an authentic form, and to issue German versions of the texts suitable to the com- positions. The result of his Handel studies was his critical and :esthetical work [Itintlel uml Shakespeare, zur xEstheti/c (Ier Tonicunst (1868), in which he drew an ingenious parallel between his favourite poet and his favourite composer, showing that their intellectual affinity was based on the Teutonic origin common to both, on the same healthiness of their mental capacities, on their analogous intellectual dev010pment, and even on a similarity of their inclinations and fates. This philosophical treatise fell flat on the German public, who could not forgive the author for having extolled Handel above the great national masters, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. The ill-success of that publica- tion, and the indifference with which the latter volumes of his History of the 19th Century were received by his countrymen, together with the feeling of disappointment that the unity of Germany had been brought about in another fashion and by other means than he wished to see employed, combined to embitter in the highest degree the writer and the politician, but it could not sour in him his kindly and humane disposition, nor did it in the least affect his sociable temper, and he cultivated refined society to the
last. He died rather suddenly, on the 18th of March 1871.
The works which will, above all othtrs, insure to Gervinus a lasting fame, are his Geschiehte dcr Dents-chm Diehtng, and his work on Shakespeare. The former, a fifth edition of which was edited (1871—74) by the eminent literary historian and philologist, Professor Karl Bartseh of Heidelberg, was the first comprehensive history of German poetry in a connected form, and was executed with a literary Skill, a. profound crudition, and a lofty enthusiasm for the subject, which imprinted upon it the stamp of a national work of permanent value. The author represented the literary activity of Germany in its successive stages as it grew out of her political life, thus making political history the foil and basis of literary history. Ilis judgment was sincere and independent, and although his criticism often assumed a. ccnsorious and pedantic tone against the most prominent poets of Germany, the German I cople, without allowing themselves to be misguided in their judgment regarding the merits of Goethe, Schiller, Jean Paul, &c., gratefully accepted his work as a. national homage to that subject of which they have most reason to be proud. The object of Gerviuus in writing his literary history was, besides, a patriotic one. He endeavoured to show that Germany, having already attained great eminence in literature, should henceforth exclusively devote herself to political activity, amt surpass other nations also in this respect. He had a no less patriotic object in view in writing his commentary on Shakespeare, which has been made popular in England by an excellent translation. This work is not so much a. philological or :esthetical commentary as a treatise pointing out the ethical or moral precepts which may be deduced from his productions, and this circumstance makes it of considerable value and interest also to English readers. Gervinus, who considered Shakespeare the intellectual property of Germany, in the same way as he considered Handel the artistic property of England, wished above all to in- culcate on his countrymen the teachings of healthy practical activity to be found in the Works of the English dramatist. The object for which he wrote, viz., the moral improvement of his readers from a practical point of view, seemed to him the easier to be accomplished through the productions of Shakespeare, because the poet was descended from a kindred race, and the fructifying seeds of his thoughts and sentiments, falling upon a congenial soil, would be sure to take root there kindly. As a political historian, Gervinus was the antipode of Ranke. Following the principles of F. C. Schlosscr, he slightcd all documentary history. He had such a. deep distrust of all state papcrs and diplomatic documents that he considered them as most untrustworthy sources for any his- torical record. He confined himself, therefore, chiefly to taking into account the political events and their results just as they lay on the surface; and, not consulting the state archives for the secret springs which set them in motion, he based his his- torical narratives almost entirely on his subjective judgment. Many brilliant passages will be found in his cncral II istory of the 19th Century, such as the accounts of the Sent 1 American and Greek revolutions, and of the July revolution in 1830; and his IIz'stm-ische Schrzflen also contain a number of valuable treatises and essays, which may be said to have paved the way to a ncw era in the art of writing history. Gcrvinus entertained a kindly feeling towards England, which he called the land of political mastery ; and though he was, what is both the bane and the glory of so many Germans, rather a cosmopolitan, he nevertheless remained a German patriot to the core. lie was, besides, distinguished by a rare noblencss and manlincss of character, and considering that he was a powerful factor in the literary and political progress of modern times, we may fully agree with Ranke's opinion “that he will never be for- gotten."
gymnasium of his native town he passed in 1803 as a student of philosophy and theology to the university of Helmstadt, where Henke was his most influential teacher; but the latter part of his undergraduate course was taken at Gtittingen, where Eichhorn and T. C. Tychsen were then at the height of their popularity. In 1806, shortly after graduation, he became “ rcpetent ” and “ privat-docent ” in that university ; and, as he was fond of afterwards relating, had Neandcr for his first pupil in Hebrew. In 1809, on the recommendation of Johann von Miiller, he was appointed to a masters-hip in the gymnasium of Heiligenstadt, West— phalia, whence, in the following year, he was transferred to the university of Halle, where, from being professor extra- ordinarius in theology, he was in a very short time promoted to an ordinary chair (1811). Many ofi'ers were subsequently made to him of high prefermeut elsewhere, but he clung to
Halle for the remainder of his life, and taught with great