something more than a hero; he was the Son of God, wasn't
he?'

The elderly individual made no immediate answer; but, after a few more
whiffs from his pipe, exclaimed, 'Come, fill your glass! How do you
advance with your translation of _Tell_?'

'It is nearly finished; but I do not think I shall proceed with it; I
begin to think the original somewhat dull.'

'There you are wrong; it is the masterpiece of Schiller, the first of
German poets.'

'It may be so,' said the youth. 'But, pray excuse me, I do not think
very highly of German poetry. I have lately been reading Shakespeare;
and, when I turn from him to the Germans--even the best of them--they
appear mere pigmies. You will pardon the liberty I perhaps take in
saying so.'

'I like that every one should have an opinion of his own,' said the
elderly individual; 'and, what is more, declare it. Nothing displeases
me more than to see people assenting to everything that they hear said; I
at once come to the conclusion that they are either hypocrites, or there
is nothing in them. But, with respect to Shakespeare, whom I have not
read for thirty years, is he not rather given to bombast, "crackling
bombast," as I think I have said in one of my essays?'

'I daresay he is,' said the youth; 'but I can't help thinking him the
greatest of all poets, not even excepting Homer. I would sooner have
written that series of plays, founded on the fortunes of the House of
Lancaster, than the _Iliad_ itself. The events described are as lofty as
those sung by Homer in his great work, and the characters brought upon
the stage still more interesting. I think Hotspur as much of a hero as
Hector, and young Henry more of a man than Achilles; and then there is
the fat knight, the quintessence of fun, wit, and rascality. Falstaff is
a creation beyond the genius even of Homer.'

'You almost tempt me to read Shakespeare again--but the Germans?'

'I don't admire the Germans,' said the youth, somewhat excited. 'I don't
admire them in any point of view. I have heard my father say that,
though good sharpshooters, they can't be much depended upon as soldiers;
and that old Sergeant Meredith told him that Minden would never have been
won but for the two English regiments, who charged the French with fixed
bayonets, and sent them to the right-about in double-quick time. With
respect to poetry, setting Shakespeare and the English altogether aside,
I think there is another Gothic nation,