of others into
the world, and that an author to whom such magnificent works were due
would himself pass judgment and publicly express his opinion--this
aroused the greatest hopes. Moreover, men of worth quickly gathered
about him, and this alliance of preeminent _litterateurs_ was so active
that the _Merkur_ during a period of several years may be employed as a
textbook of our literary history. On the public generally its influence
was profound and significant, for if, on the one hand, reading and
criticism became the possession of a greater multitude, the desire to
give instant expression to his thoughts became active in everyone who
had anything to give. More was sent to the editor than he expected and
desired; his success awakened imitators; similar periodicals arose which
crowded upon the public, first monthly, then weekly and daily, and which
finally produced that confusion of Babel of which we were and are
witnesses, and which, strictly speaking, springs from the fact that
everyone wishes to talk, but no one is willing to listen..

The quality which maintained the value and the dignity of the _Deutscher
Merkur_ for many years was its editor's innate liberality. Wieland was
not created to be a party leader; he who recognizes moderation as the
chief maxim cannot make himself guilty of one-sidedness. Whatever
excited his active spirit he sought to equalize within himself through
taste and common sense, and thus he also treated his collaborators, for
none of whom he felt very much enthusiasm; and as, while translating the
ancient authors whom he so highly esteemed, he was accustomed frequently
to attack them in his notes, so, by his disapproving annotations, he
often vexed, and actually estranged, valued and even favorite
contributors.

Even before this, our friend had been forced to endure full many an
attack on account of major or minor writings; so much the less as the
editor of a periodical could he escape literary controversies. Yet here,
too, he shows himself ever the same. Such a paper war can never last
long for him, and if it threatens to be in any degree protracted, he
gives his opponent the last word and goes his wonted path.

Foreigners have sagaciously observed that German authors regard the
public less than the writers of other nations, and that, therefore, one
can tell from his writings the man who is developing himself, and the
man who seeks to create something to his own satisfaction,--and,
consequ