observe broad relationships and parallel formations. So, then, the
eighteenth century could, in the treatment of the mother tongue, enter
upon a goodly heritage, of which for a long time Johann Christoph
Gottsched might not unjustly be counted the guardian. It was a
thoroughly conservative linguistic stewardship, which received
gigantic expression in Adelung's Dictionary--with all its
deficiencies, the most important German dictionary that had been
compiled up to that time. Clearness, intelligibleness, exactitude were
insisted upon. It was demanded that there should be a distinct
difference between the language of the writer and that in everyday
use, and again a difference between poetic language and prose; on the
other hand, great care had to be taken that the difference should
never become too great, so that common intelligibility should not
suffer. Thus the new poetic language of Klopstock, precisely on
account of its power and richness, was obliged to submit to the
bitterest mockery and the most injudicious abuse from the partisans of
Gottsched. As the common ideal of the pedagogues of language, who were
by no means merely narrow-minded pedants, one may specify that which
had long ago been accomplished for France--namely, a uniform choice of
a stock of words best suited to the needs of a clear and luminous
literature for the cultivated class, and the stylistic application of
the same. Two things, above all, were neglected: they failed to
realize (as did France also) the continual development of a healthy
language, though the ancients had glimpses of this; and they failed
(this in contrast to France) to comprehend the radical differences
between the various forms of literary composition. Therefore the
pre-classical period still left enough to be done by the classical.

It was Klopstock who accomplished the most; he created a new, a lofty
poetic language, which was to be recognized, not by the use of
conventional metaphors and swelling hyperboles, but by the direct
expression of a highly exalted mood. However, the danger of a forced
overstraining of the language was combatted by Christoph Martin
Wieland, who formed a new and elegant narrative prose on Greek,
French, and English models, and also introduced the same style into
poetic narrative, herein abetted by Friedrich von Hagedorn as his
predecessor and co-worker. Right on the threshold, then, of the great
new German literature another mixture of styles sprang up,