HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

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works flows this main current; Heine,
far more than Tieck or Jean Paul
Eichter, is the continuator of that
which, in Goethe's varied activity, is the
most powerful and vital; on Heine, of
all German authors who survived
Goethe, incomparably the largest portion
of Goethe's mantle fell. I do not
forget that when Mr. Carlyle was dealing
with German literature, Heine,
though he was clearly risen above the
horizon, had not shone forth with all
his strength j I do not forget, too, that
after ten or twenty years many things
may come out plain before the critic
which before were hard to be discerned
by him; and assuredly no one would
dream of imputing it as a fault to Mr.
Carlyle that twenty years ago he mistook
the central current in German literature,
overlooked the rising Heine,
and attached undue importance to
that romantic school which Heine was
to destroy; one may rather note it as a
misfortune, sent perhaps as a delicate
chastisement to a critic, who, — man of
genius as he is, and no one recognises
his genius more admirably than I do, —
has, for the functions of the critic, a
Httle too much of the self-will and
eccentricity of a genuine son of Great
Britain.
Heine is noteworthy, because he is
the most important German successor
and continuator of Goethe in Goethe's
most important line of activity. And