r of _The Robbers_. He looked on the popularity of
the detestable play as a shocking evidence of depraved public taste
and was not aware how its author had changed since writing it. So it
came about that, for some six years, the two men lived as neighbors in
space but strangers in the spirit. At last, however, an accidental
meeting in Jena led to an interchange of views and prepared the way
for the most memorable of literary friendships.

By this time Schiller had undertaken the editorship of a new literary
magazine to be called _Die Horen_, which was to be financed by the
enterprising publisher Cotta in Stuttgart. The plan was that it should
eclipse all previous undertakings of its kind. But it was to eschew
politics. Germany was just then agitated by the fierce passions of the
revolutionary epoch, and this excitement was regarded by Schiller as
ominous for the nation. There was need of esthetic education. So he
proposed to keep the _Horen_ clear of politics and try to divert the
minds of men into the serener regions of letters and art. To Goethe,
who also hated the Revolution, this was a highly acceptable program.
So he readily undertook to write for the _Horen_, and thus he and
Schiller soon became linked together in the public mind as allied
champions of a cause. It is for this reason that the Germans are wont
to call them the Dioscuri.

By way of signalizing their community of interest the Dioscuri
presently began to write satirical distichs at the expense of men and
tendencies that they did not like. For example:

Gentlemen, keep your seats! for the curs but covet your places,
Elegant places to hear all the other dogs bark.

The making of these more or less caustic epigrams amused them.
Sometimes one would suggest the topic and the other write the distich;
again, one would do the hexameter, the other the pentameter. They
agreed that neither should ever claim separate property in the
_Xenia_, as they were called. The number grew apace, until it reached
nearly a thousand. About half the number on hand were published in
1797 in Schiller's _Musenalmanach_ and had the effect of setting all
Germany agog with curiosity, rage or solemn glee. Some of those hit
replied in kind or in vicious attacks, and for a little while there
was great excitement. But having discharged their broadside Goethe and
Schiller did not further pursue the ignoble warfare. They wisely came
to the conclusion that the best way to elevate the