f his writings, prose and verse, is
his extraordinary subjectivity, pushing the poet's _ego_ into the
foreground. With light, graceful touch, he demonstrates the possibility
of unrestrained self-expression in an artistic guise. The boldness and
energy with which "he gave voice to his hidden self" were so novel, so
surprising, that his melodies at once awoke an echo. This subjectivity
is his Jewish birthright. It is Israel's ingrained combativeness, for
more than a thousand years the genius of its literature, which
throughout reveals a predilection for abrupt contrasts, and is studded
with unmistakable expressions of strong individuality. By virtue of his
subjectivity, which never permits him to surrender himself
unconditionally, the Jew establishes a connection between his _ego_ and
whatever subject he treats of. "He does not sink his own identity, and
lose himself in the depths of the cosmos, nor roam hither and thither in
the limitless space of the world of thought. He dives down to search for
pearls at the bottom of the sea, or rises aloft to gain a bird's-eye
view of the whole. The world encloses him as the works of a clock are
held in a case. His _ego_ is the hammer, and there is no sound unless,
swinging rhythmically, itself touches the sides, now softly, now
boldly." Not content to yield to an authority which would suppress his
freedom of action, he traverses the world, and compels it to promote the
development of his energetic nature. To these peculiarities of his race
Heine fell heir--to the generous traits growing out of marked
individuality, its grooves deepened by a thousand years of martyrdom, as
well as to the petty faults following in the wake of excessive
self-consciousness; which have furnished adversaries of the Jews with
texts and weapons.

This subjectivity, traceable in his language and in his ancient
literature, it is that unfits the Jew for objective, philosophic
investigation. It is, moreover, responsible for that energetic
self-assertiveness for which the Aramaean language has coined the word
_chutspa_, only partially rendered by arrogance. Possibly it is the root
of another quality which Heine owes to his Jewish extraction--his wit
Heine's scintillations are composed of a number of elements--of English
humor, French sparkle, German irony, and Jewish wit, all of which,
saving the last, have been analyzed by the critics. Proneness to
censure, to criticism, and discussion, is the concomitant of ke