to evoke a more
general law as a deciding factor.

This was, moreover, actually realized, and in poetry a new epoch emerged
which was necessarily as antagonistic to our friend as he was to it.
From this time on he experienced many unfavorable judgments, yet without
being very deeply influenced by them; and I here expressly mention this
circumstance, since the consequent struggle in German literature is as
yet by no means allayed and adjusted, and since a friend who desires to
value Wieland's merits and sturdily to uphold his memory must be
perfectly conversant with the situation of affairs, with the rise and
with the sequence of opinions, and with the character and with the
talents of the cooperators; he must know well the powers and the
services of both sides; and, to work impartially, he must, in a sense,
belong to both factions. Yet from those minor or major controversies
which arose from his intellectual attitude I am drawn by a serious
consideration, to which we must now turn.

The peace which for many years had blissfully dwelt amid our mountains
and hills, and in our delightfully watered valleys, had long been, if
not disturbed, at least threatened, by military expeditions. When the
eventful day dawned which filled us with amazement and alarm, since the
fate of the world was decided in our walks, even in those terrible hours
toward which our friend's carefree life flowed on, fortune did not
desert him, for he was saved first through the precaution of a young and
resolute friend, and then through the attention of the French
conquerors, who honored in him both the meritorious author, famed
throughout the world, and a member of their own great literary
institute.

Soon afterward he had to bear the loss of Amelia, so bitter to us all.
Court and city endeavored to extend him every compensation, and soon
afterward he was favored by two emperors with insignia of honor, the
like of which he had not sought, and had not even expected, throughout
his long life.

Yet in the day of joy as in the day of sorrow he remained constant to
himself, and thus he exemplified the superiority of delicate natures,
whose equanimity knows how to meet with moderation good and evil fortune
alike.

But he appeared most remarkable of all, considered in body and in
spirit, after the bitter calamity which befell him in such advanced
years when, together with a beloved daughter, he was very severely
injured by the overturning of his carria