rk, it
would be of advantage to know whether they were merely travelers or
sojourners, or had been here long enough to be considered an integral
part of our civilization. However useful this information would be, it
is, in a majority of cases, unobtainable. Most of the translations
appeared without any indication as to authorship. One thing that may
partly account for this was the tendency of the early magazines to
copy and plagiarize. Scores of poems were found which had previously
been printed in other periodicals (American or English), but for the
source of which no credit was given. Even the author's name was
suppressed. In one instance an editor inserted a poem that had
appeared in the very same magazine one or two years earlier, and yet
the readers were to receive it as something new.[23] The only possible
means of identification in these cases is by comparison with published
collections of translations. Several translations have thus been
traced to Sir Walter Scott, M. G. Lewis, William Taylor of Norwich and
others. Many are reprints from English magazines, concerning which it
is impossible at present to give more accurate information. The
subject has not been investigated with respect to the English
periodicals, and since their number is far greater than the American,
it would require a separate study to prepare a list of translations
from the German published in them. It is, therefore, impracticable to
exclude from the present discussion translations and poems by
Englishmen, for it is only where the author's name is mentioned, or a
note given, stating that the translation was made for such and such a
magazine, that we can be sure whether it was an American product or
not. The important fact is that the translation appeared in America
and helped to make known to American readers certain specimens of
German literature.

[Footnote 23: _The Moss Rose_, From the German [of
Krummacher]. _The Minerva_, I-40, May 4, 1822 and II-296,
Dec. 20, 1823, N. Y.]

In the selection of material certain limitations were necessary. In
the list of prose translations and articles dealing with the German
countries, everything has been mentioned which refers directly or
indirectly to Germany. This is important in giving a complete estimate
of the interest shown, for there was a desire to know something about
German prose works, German biography and history as well as German
poetry. From the list of translations reprinted