[7.] “Versuch über den Roman.” Frankfort and Leipzig, 1774, p. 528. This study contains frequent allusions to Sterne and occasional quotation from his works, pp. 48, 191, 193, 200, 210, 273, 351, 365, 383, 426.
[8.] There is a similar tribute to English humor in “Ueber die moralische Schönheit und Philosophie des Lebens.” Altenburg, 1772, p. 199. Compare also Herder’s opinion in “Ideen zur Geschichte und Kritik der Poesie und bildenden Künste,” 1794–96, No. 49, in “Abhandlungen und Briefe über schöne Literatur und Kunst.” Tübingen, 1806, I, pp. 375–380; compare also passages in his “Fragmente” and “Wäldchen.”
[9.] Second edition, Halle, 1807, II, pp. 309 ff. The definition of humor and the perplexing question as to how far it is identical with “Laune,” have received considerable attention at the hands of aesthetic critics; compare, for example, Lessing in the “Hamburgische Dramaturgie.”
[10.] VII. p. 353. 1761.
[11.] “Deutsche Nationalliteratur,” II, p. 535. Hamburg, 1850.
[12.] “Geschichte der deutschen Literatur im achtzehnten Jahrhundert,” III, 1, pp. 363 ff.
[13.] See Introduction to “Briefe über Merkwürdigkeiten der Litteratur” in Seuffert’s Deutsche Litteraturdenkmale des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts. The literature of this study of imitation in the Germany of the second half of the eighteenth century is considerable. The effort of much in the Litteratur-Briefe may be mentioned as contributing to this line of thought. The prize question of the Berlin Academy for 1788 brought forth a book entitled: “Wie kann die Nachahmung sowohl alter als neuer fremden Werke der schönen Wissenschaften des vaterländischen Geschmack entwickeln und vervollkommnen?” by Joh. Chr. Schwabe, professor in Stuttgart. (Berlin, pp. 120; reviewed in Allg. Litt. Zeitung. 1790. I, pp. 632–640.) Perhaps the first English essay upon German imitation of British masters is that in the Critical Journal, Vol. III, which was considered of sufficient moment for a German translation. See Morgenblatt, I, Nr. 162, July 8, 1807. A writer in the Auserlesene Bibliothek der neusten deutschen Litteratur (Lemgo, 1772–3), in an article entitled “Vom Zustande des Geschmacks beim deutschen Publikum,” traces the tendency to imitate to the German capacity for thinking rather than for feeling. (III, pp. 683 ff.) “Das deutsche Publikum,” he says, “scheint dazu bestimmt zu seyn, nachzuahmen, nachzuurtheilen, nachzuempfinden.” Justus Möser condemns his fellow countrymen soundly for their empty imitation. See fragment published in “Sämmtliche Werke,” edited by B. R. Abeken. Berlin, 1858. IV, pp. 104–5.
[14.] Herder’s sämmtliche Werke, edited by B. Suphan, Berlin, Weidman, 1877, I, 254. In the tenth fragment (second edition) he says the Germans have imitated other nations, “so dass Nachahmer beinahe zum Beiwort und zur zweiten Sylbe unseres Namens geworden.” See II, p. 51. Many years later Herder does not seem to view this period of imitation with such regret as the attitude of these earlier criticisms would forecast. In the “Ideen zur Geschichte und Kritik der Poesie und bildenden Künste,” 1794–96, he states with a burst of enthusiasm over the adaptability of the German language that he regards imitation as no just reproach, for thereby has Germany become immeasurably the richer.
[15.] The kind of praise bestowed on Hermes’s “Sophiens Reise” is a case in point; it was greeted as the first real German novel, the traces of English imitation being hardly noticeable. See Magazin der deutschen Critik, Vol. I, St. 2, pp. 245–251, 1772, signed “Kl.” Sattler’s “Friederike” was accorded a similar welcome of German patriotism; see Magazin der deutschen Critik, III, St. 1, p. 233. The “Litterarische Reise durch Deutschland” (Leipzig, 1786, p. 82) calls “Sophiens Reise” the first original German novel. See also the praise of Von Thümmel’s “Wilhelmine” and “Sophiens Reise” in Blankenburg’s “Versuch über den Roman,” pp. 237–9. Previously Germans had often hesitated to lay the scenes of their novels in Germany, and in many others English characters traveling or residing in Germany supply the un-German element.