He exhibits things taken from the physics of Oken, the metaphysics of Schelling, and the æsthetics of Görres. The whole of the song is good; and I quote one stanza as showing a sound appreciation of the current metaphysicians:
"Die Intelligenz construirt sich in der Zeit
Als Object, und erkennt sich, und das ist gescheidt,
Denn aus diesen und andern Constructuren
Entstehen Lehrbücher und Professuren."
They visit the garret of Herr Novalis Octavianus Hornwunder, a maker of books to order upon every subject: they learn the mysteries of the manufacture. The scene is clever, but much of the wit is unappreciable as directed against productions which have not survived. Jupiter, in compassion to Hornwunder, changes him to a goose, immediately after which a bookseller enters, and, mistaking the gods for authors, makes them an offer of six dollars and twelve groschen the octavo volume, besides something for the kitchen. Jupiter, enraged, changes him to a fox, which forthwith eats the goose "feathers and all."
They then go to see the play of the Fall of Man (Der Sündenfall). The subject is treated after the manner of Hans Sachs, but with this difference, that the simple-minded old Nuremberger saw nothing incongruous in making Cain and Abel say their catechism, and Cain go away from the examination to fight with the low boys in the street; whereas the author of Der Sündenfall is advisedly irreverent. Another proof, if one were wanted, that he was not Tieck.
Die Ungöttliche Comödie is not by Batornicki, but translated by him from the Polish. In the preface he apologises for inelegant German, as that is not his native language; and I presume he is a Pole, as he says the author's name is known among us (unter uns). As he calls it a poem (Dichtung) the original is probably in verse. I think the Munich critic could have seen only some extracts from the Comœdia Divina; for, so far from Batornicki "plundering freely," I do not find any resemblance between the works except in the sole word comœdia. The Comœdia Divina is a mockery, not political, but literary, and as such anti-mystic and conservative. Die Ungöttliche Comödie is wild, mystical, supernatural, republican, and communistic. It contains passages of great power, eloquence, and pathos. German critics are often prosy and inefficient, but not given to wilful misrepresentation or carelessness in examining the books they review. The writer in the Munich journal must be held an exception.
H. B. C.
U. U. Club.