HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

Heinrich Heine
their erstwhile colleagues. Acquaintance with the
secrets of the enemies' camp enabled them to direct
their fire with telHng effect against the weak points
in their adversaries' lines.
The Foreign Quarterly Review approved the fine
of action supposedly undertaken by Borne and
Heine, because ridicule was more effective than
logic in changing people's opinions. Besides, readers
were in the habit of perusing only those journals
which catered to their ingrained prejudices. There
was no way of breaking through the enemies' entrenchments,
except in disguise: "This is the plan
which has been adopted by Borne and Heine. Under
the disguise of liberals, and with a huge parade of all
the ordinary cant of the party, they contrive, by
concentrating and combining in a short space the
most striking instances of ignorance, impiety, selfishness,
malignity, or inconsistency, which writings
of the ultra-liberal party for some time past afford,
to impart to these an air of irresistible absurdity, and
to render the character of its supporters more contemptible
than we believe it could have been made
in any other way." ^ Heine was especially successful
in exposing the peculiar fondness of the liberals
for Napoleon, the most unrelenting enemy of liberalism
in modern times. He was also successful in
[18]