THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
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He seems to have been an apostle of aesthetic idealism. Only by comparison with Kant and other philosophers does he appear to be a realist. He lived in an atmosphere of contemplation, and possessed the magic power of presenting old truths in new forms. The winged Pegassus of his imagination soared aloft, bearing him to the highest regions of ideal and spiritual conceptions. His intellect was as clear as a cloudless sky, his fancies as brilliant as the rainbow after a summer shower.
In some instances his poetry is half philosophical, bearing the impress of his scientific studies. History and philosophy soothed his res'tless spirit and furnished inspiration for his historic records of noble deeds. Goethe taught him how to master and arrange his subjects, and Schiller aided him by helpful suggestions. Goethe once said: “ People dispute as to which is the greater poet, Schiller or 1; but they ought rather to rejoice that two such fellows as we are in existence.”
The elder poet doubtless possessed a greater fund of knowledge, a better education and more varied accomplishments. Schiller knew much by intuition and reflection. In personal appearance there was as great a dissimilarity between these two men as we find existed between their mental attributes. Lewes tells us that “ Goethe’s beautiful head, the calm, victorious grandeur of the Greek ideal; Schiller possessed the earnest beauty of a Christian looking toward the future.” Schiller’s blue eyes were eager and spiritual. PI is brow tense and intense; irregular features lined by thought and suffering and weakened by illness. Goethe’s face wore the majesty of repose, Schiller’s the look of conflict. The Greek ideal represents realism, the Christian ideal represents idealism. Goethe said once, “ Schiller is animated by the idea of freedom, I with the idea of nature.” We observe that this distinction characterizes all their writings, Goethe always striving to let nature havfc free development and produce the highest forms of humanity; Schiller’s seeking, aspiring mind striving for something greater than nature, wishing to make men demigods.
The points of resemblance between the poets, which made them congenial, were these: Both believed that “art was a mighty influence, related to religion, by whose aid the great world-scheme was wrought into reality.” They believed that culture would raise humanity to its full powers. As artists they knew no culture equal to art. With Goethe the moral ideal was evolved from the artistic; with Schiller moral ideals were instinctive, a part of his own pure nature.
Schiller has beautifully defined the idea that the “ truth shall make one free ” and that “ beauty is its own excuse for being,” in the following lines, which I quote from his “Hymn to Art: ”
“I am not held in bonds, unfettered, free,
I rove throughout all space, rove near and far;
Thought is my boundless realm, and here I flee,
Upon the wings of words, from star to star.
What heaven and earth accumulate in store,
What nature spins in her mysterious deep I daringly unravel and explore,
For endless is the poet’s soaring leap;
But what more lovely can be sought or found Than in fair frame, a soul with beauty crowned.”