"[46] In another letter Hyperion explains their
incapacity for finer feeling and appreciation when he writes: "Neide die
Leidensfreien nicht, die Goetzen von Holz, denen nichts mangelt, weil
ihre Seele so arm ist, die nichts fragen nach Regen und Sonnenschein,
weil sie nichts haben, was der Pflege beduerfte. Ja, ja, es ist recht
sehr leicht, gluecklich, ruhig zu sein mit seichtem Herzen und
eingeschraenktem Geiste."[47] Their work he characterizes as
"Stuemperarbeit," and their virtues as brilliant evils and nothing more.
There is nothing sacred, he claims, that has not been desecrated by this
nation. But it is chiefly his own experience which he recites, when, in
speaking of the sad plight of German poets, of those who still love the
beautiful, he says: "Es ist auch herzzerreissend, wenn man eure Dichter,
eure Kuenstler sieht--die Guten, sie leben in der Welt, wie Fremdlinge im
eigenen Hause."[48] Still more extravagantly does the poet caricature
his own people when he writes: "Wenn doch einmal diesen Gottverlassnen
einer sagte, dass bei ihnen nur so unvollkommen alles ist, weil sie
nichts Reines unverdorben, nichts Heiliges unbetastet lassen mit den
plumpen Haenden--dass bei ihnen eigentlich das Leben schaal und
sorgenschwer ist, weil sie den Genius verschmaehen--und darum fuerchten
sie auch den Tod so sehr, und leiden um des Austernlebens willen alle
Schmach, weil Hoehres sie nicht kennen, als ihr Machwerk, das sie sich
gestoppelt."[49]

But we should get an extremely unjust and one-sided idea of Hoelderlin's
attitude toward his country from these quotations alone. The point which
they illustrate is his growing estrangement from his own people, which
in the very nature of the case must have had an important bearing upon
his Weltschmerz. But his feelings in regard to Germany and the Germans
were not all contempt. In many of his poems there is the true patriotic
ring. It is true, we can nowhere find any clear political program,
neither could we expect one from a poet who was so absorbed in his own
feelings, and whose ideals soared so high above the sphere of practical
politics. In this too Hoelderlin was the product of previous influences.
With all their clamor for political upheavals, the "Stuermer und Draenger"
never arrived at any serious or practical plan of action.
Notwithstanding all this, the word Vaterland was always an inspiration
to Hoelderlin, and it is especially gratifying to note that the calumny
which he