ently, the character of these two types soon becomes obvious.
This quality we have already ascribed to Wieland in particular; and it
will be so much the more interesting to arrange and to follow his
writings and his life in this sense, since, formerly and latterly, the
attempt has been made to cast suspicion on our friend's character from
these very writings. A large number of men are even yet in error
regarding him, since they fancy that the man of many sides must be
indifferent, and the versatile man must be wavering; it is forgotten
that character is concerned simply and solely with the practical. Only
in that which a man does and continues to do, and in that to which he is
constant, does he reveal his character, and in this sense there has been
no more steadfast man, no man constantly more true to himself, than
Wieland. If he surrendered himself to the multiplicity of his emotions,
and to the versatility of his thoughts, and if he permitted no single
impression to gain dominion over him, in this very way he proved the
firmness and the sureness of his mind. This witty man played gladly with
his opinions, but--I can summon all contemporaries as witnesses--never
with his convictions. And thus he won for himself many friends, and kept
them. That he had any decided enemy is not known to me. In the enjoyment
of his poetic works he lived for many years in municipal, civic,
friendly, and social surroundings, and gained the distinction of a
complete edition of his carefully revised works, and even of an _edition
de luxe_ of them.

But even in the autumn of his years he was destined to feel the
influence of the spirit of the age, and in an unforeseen manner to begin
a new life, a new youth. The blessings of sweet peace had long ruled
over Germany; general outward safety and repose coincided most happily
with the inward, human, cosmopolitan views of existence. The peaceful
townsman seemed no longer to require his walls; they were dispensed
with; and there was a yearning after rustic life. The security of landed
property gave confidence to everyone; the untrammelled life of nature
attracted everyone; and as man, born a social being, can often fancy to
himself the sweet deceit that he lives better, easier, happier in
isolation, so Wieland also, who had already been vouchsafed the highest
literary leisure, seemed to look about him for an abode more quiet in
which to cultivate the Muses; and when he found opportunity and strength