t in the means."

KING. "Yes, that is true; that is what Authors (GELEHRTE) in Deutschland
are always deficient in. I suppose these are bad times, are not they?"

GELLERT. "JA WOHL; and if your Majesty would grant us Peace (DEN FRIEDEN
GEBEN WOLLTEN)--"

KING. "How can I? Have not you heard, then? There are three of them
against me (ES SIND JA DREI WIDER MICH)!"

GELLERT. "I have more to do with the Ancients and their History than
with the Moderns."

KING (changing the topic). "What do you think, is Homer or Virgil the
finer as an Epic Poet?"

GELLERT. "Homer, as the more original."

KING. "But Virgil is much more polished (VIEL POLIRTER)."

GELLERT. "We are too far removed from Homer's times to judge of his
language. I trust to Quintilian in that respect, who prefers Homer."

KING. "But one should not be a slave to the opinion of the Ancients."

GELLERT. "Nor am I that. I follow them only in cases where, owing to the
distance, I cannot judge for myself."

MAJOR ICILIUS (again giving a slight fillip or suggestion). "He," the
Herr Professor here, "has also treated of GERMAN LETTER-WRITING, and has
published specimens."

KING. "So? But have you written against the CHANCERY STYLE, then"
(the painfully solemn style, of ceremonial and circumlocution; Letters
written so as to be mainly wig and buckram)?

GELLERT. "ACH JA, that have I, IHRO MAJESTAT!"

KING. "But why doesn't it change? The Devil must be in it (ES IST ETWAS
VERTEUFELTES). They bring me whole sheets of that stuff, and I can make
nothing of it!"

GELLERT. "If your Majesty cannot alter it, still less can I. I can only
recommend, where you command."

KING. "Can you repeat any of your Fables?"

GELLERT. "I doubt it; my memory is very treacherous."

KING. "Bethink you a little; I will walk about [Gellert bethinks him,
brow puckered. King, seeing the brow unpucker itself]. Well, have you
one?"

GELLERT. "Yes, your Majesty: THE PAINTER." Gellert recites (voice
plaintive and hollow; somewhat PREACHY, I should doubt, but not cracked
or shrieky);--we condense him into prose abridgment for English readers;
German can look at the bottom of the page: [(Gellert's WERKE: Leipzig,
1840; i. 135.)]--

"'A prudent Painter in Athens, more intent on excellence than on money,
had done a God of War; and sent for a real Critic to give him his
opinion of it. On survey, the Critic shook his head: "Too much Art
visible; won't do, my friend!" The Painter strove to