he temporary disfavor of his patron, the
neighboring Count Stadion, rather than to make an unpatriotic
submission.

His _Agathon_ itself teaches us that within this sphere as well he gave
preference to sound principles; nevertheless, he took such interest in
the realities of life that all his occupations and all his predilections
ultimately failed to prevent him from thinking about the same. He
particularly felt himself summoned anew to this when he dared promise
himself a weighty influence on the training of princes from whom much
might be expected.

In all the works of this type which he wrote a cosmopolitan spirit is
manifest, and since they were composed at a time when the power of
absolute monarchy was not yet shaken, it became his main purpose
insistently to set their obligations before the rulers and to point them
to the happiness which they should find in the happiness of their
subjects.

Now, however, the epoch came when an aroused nation tore down all that
had thus far stood, and seemed to summon the spirits of all the dwellers
upon earth to a universal legislation. On this matter, likewise, he
declared himself with cautious modesty; and by rational presentations,
which he clothed under a variety of forms, he sought to produce some
measure of equilibrium in the excited masses. Since, however, the tumult
of anarchy became more and more furious, and since a voluntary union of
the masses appeared inconceivable, he was the first once more to counsel
absolutism and to designate the man to work the miracle of
reestablishment.

If, now, it be remembered in this connection that our friend wrote
concerning these matters not, as it were, after, but during, events, and
that, as the editor of a widely-read periodical he had occasion--and was
even compelled--on the spur of the moment to express his views each
month, then he who is called to trace chronologically the course of his
life will perceive, not without amazement, how attentively he followed
the swift events of the day, and how shrewdly he conducted himself
throughout as a German and as a thinking, sympathetic man. And here is
the place to recall the periodical which was so important for Germany,
the _Deutscher Merkur_. This undertaking was not the first of its kind,
yet at that time it was new and significant. The name of its editor
immediately created great confidence in it; for the fact that a man who
was himself a poet also promised to introduce the poems