pus at Colonus_ (for geography knows nothing of sacred groves),
Shakespeare's _Tempest_ (for there is no such thing as magic), _Hamlet_
and _Macbeth_ (for only a fool is afraid of ghosts, etc.); nay he must
also--and this even he who might be ready to make the other sacrifices
would find it hard to bring himself to do--he must also place the French
at the head of what remains; for where can one find realists like
Voltaire, etc.? This, to me, seems to demonstrate my proposition, at
least the counter-test is made.

THE LIFE OF OTTO LUDWIG

By A.R. HOHLFELD, Ph.D.

Professor of German Literature, University of Wisconsin

The career of Otto Ludwig belongs to a sad period in nineteenth century
literature in Germany. Sad not because of any lack of works of
originality and power, but sad because of the wanton neglect with which
the German public of those years treated its ablest and most forceful
writers. The historian Treitschke, in an essay probably written not long
after the death of Otto Ludwig, sarcastically says in direct reference
to the latter's tragic life: "No nation reads more books than ours, none
buys fewer." To be sure, Germany was then a poor country and its readers
had some excuse for being economical in supplying their literary wants.
But there was no excuse for the notorious narrowness of vision and
judgment shown by many of the leading critics, theatres, and literary
journals of that time. Writers of mediocre talent were praised to the
skies. But old Grillparzer, Hebbel and Ludwig, Keller, Raabe, Storm, and
others who brought a really new and vital message were left to bear the
burden of neglect, if not of animosity. No wonder that in foreign lands,
after the middle of the nineteenth century, contemporary German
literature fell into an almost universal disrepute from which it is only
slowly recovering at present. Foreign critics were justified in judging
the significance of the literary output of Germany by those writers on
whom the Germans themselves were placing the seal of national approval.
Zschokke, Gerstaecker, Auerbach, Spielhagen, not to mention the
ubiquitous Muehlbach or Marlitt or Polko--these were the names which in
America, for instance, figured most prominently in the magazines between
1850 and 1880. [Illustration: OTTO LUDWIG] [Blank Page] Their works
were reviewed and translated. They were considered as the
representatives of Germany in the literary parliament of nations, while
th