e
theatre. The reader of Schiller soon comes to feel that he deals with
issues that are alive because they are immortal.

Another important factor in his classicity is the suggestion that goes
out from his idealized personality. German sentiment has set him on a
high pedestal and made a hero of him, so that his word is not exactly
as another man's word. Something of this was felt by those about him
even in his lifetime. Says Karoline von Wolzogen: "High seriousness
and the winsome grace of a pure and noble soul were always present in
Schiller's conversation; in listening to him one walked as among the
changeless stars of heaven and the flowers of earth." This is the
tribute of a partial friend, but it describes very well the impression
produced by Schiller's writings. His love of freedom and beauty, his
confidence in reason, his devotion to the idea of humanity, seem to
exhale from his work and to invest it with a peculiar distinction. His
plays and poems are a priceless memento to the spirit of a great and
memorable epoch. Hundreds of writers have said their say about him,
but no better word has been spoken than the noble tribute of Goethe:

For he was ours. So let the note of pride
Hush into silence all the mourner's ruth;
In our safe harbor he was fain to bide
And build for aye, after the storm of youth.
We saw his mighty spirit onward stride
To eternal realms of Beauty and of Truth;
While far behind him lay fantasmally
The vulgar things that fetter you and me.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Translated by Edward, Lord Lytton.]

[Footnote 2: This Sonnet, by the author of this sketch of Schiller's
life, was written for the Chicago Schiller Celebration of 1905, but
has not been printed before. EDITOR.]

* * * * *

POEMS

[All poems in this section are translations by Edward, Lord Lytton,
and appear by permission of George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., London.]

* * * * *

TO THE IDEAL (1795)

Then wilt thou, with thy fancies holy--
Wilt thou, faithless, fly from me?
With thy joy, thy melancholy,
Wilt thou thus relentless flee?
O Golden Time, O Human May,
Can nothing, Fleet One, thee restraint?
Must thy sweet river glide away
Into the eternal Ocean Main?

The suns serene are lost and vanish'd
That wont the path of youth to gild,
And all t