thus spread far and wide by our friend, in company with
countless sympathizers, by poems and by scholarly works, even by life
itself.

And yet, if we have found Shaftesbury and Wieland perfectly alike so far
as point of view, temperament, and insight are concerned, nevertheless,
the latter was far superior to the former in talent; for what the
Englishman rationally taught and desired, the German knew how to
elaborate poetically and rhetorically in verse and prose.

In this elaboration, however, the French mode of treatment was
necessarily most suitable to him. Serenity, wit, spirit, and elegance
are already at hand in France; his luxuriant imagination, which now
desires to be occupied only with light and joyous themes, turns to tales
of fairies and knights, which grant it the greatest freedom. Here,
again, in the _Arabian Nights_ and in the _Bibliotheque universelle des
romans_, France offered him materials half-prepared and adapted, while
the ancient treasures of this sort, which Germany possesses, still
remained crude and unavailable.

It is precisely these poems which have most widely spread and most
firmly established Wieland's fame. Their light-heartedness gained them
access to everyone, and even the serious Germans deigned to be pleased
with them; for all these works appeared indeed at a happy and favorable
time. They were all written in the spirit which we have developed above.
Frequently the fortunate poet undertook the artistic task of giving a
high value to very mediocre materials by revising them; and though it
cannot be denied that he sometimes permits reason to triumph over the
higher powers, and at other times allows sensuality to prevail over the
moral qualities, yet we must also grant that, in its proper place,
everything which can possibly adorn noble souls gains supremacy.

Earlier than most of these works, though not the earliest of all, was
the translation of Shakespeare. Wieland did not fear impairment of his
originality by study; on the contrary, he was convinced at an early date
that a lively, fertile spirit found its best stimulus not only in the
adaptation of material that was already well known, but also in the
translation of extant works.

In those days the translation of Shakespeare was a daring thought, for
even trained _litterateurs_ denied the possibility of the success of
such an undertaking. Wieland translated freely, grasped the sense of his
author, and omitted what appeared to him